ASHEBORO NC – Last week the North Carolina Zoo celebrated 20 years of operating it’s Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.
The Valerie H. Schindler Wildlife Rehabilitation Center (WRC) at the NC Zoo provides free, professional veterinary and rehabilitation services to sick, injured, or orphaned native North Carolina animals. The goal for the animals they treat is to be returned to the wild in a condition that will optimize their chances of survival after release. According to the NC Zoo the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center is the only one of its kind in U.S. zoos.
The WRC is not open to the public, the animals in its care need as little human contact as possiable for a successful release into the wild. Nat Geo WILD’s “Secrets of the Zoo, North Carolina” series gave the public its first real look inside the WRC in its first season, including showing the care and release back to the wild of two black bear cubs.
On on Friday, Aug. 20th the NC Zoo held an official celebration of the 20 year milestone. The event was held at the Discovery Zone Amphitheater, in attendance was Deputy Director Jeff Michael of N.C. Dept of Natural and Cultural Resources, Chief Veterinarian Dr. Jb Minter, and WRC’s Supervisor Halley Buckanoff. “The animals that come to us just need a little bit of care” said Dr. Jb Minter, the NC Zoo’s Chief Veterinarian. “We want them (the animal) to do the best they can do, we want them to go out, we want them to be wild” said Dr. Jb at the event. “So when you think about what it is that we do, we do the minor stuff, but we also fix broken legs, and fix broken wings.”
You can learn more about the WRC on the NC Zoo website at: https://www.nczoo.org/wildlife/native-wildlife-rehabilitation