Wildlife Center of Virginia to care for patient #100,000

Baby bears purr when they’re happy, and the sound is familiar here at the Wildlife Center of Virginia where hundreds of cubs have been raised when their mothers were killed by hunters or hit by cars.

Raptors, like Eddie the Eagle, are also coming-in after ingesting lead fragments from bullets or being hit by vehicles as they dined on road kill.

The need for care has grown dramatically according to center spokesman Connor Gillespie.

“They’re losing their habitat. They’re coming across people more often, so that’s leading to vehicle collisions, animals that might be getting caught in netting or in some way or another human development is somewhat responsible for the number of injuries that we’re seeing.”

Fortunately, he says, about 150 transport volunteers are standing by to bring ailing wildlife from all over the state.

“Our transport volunteers are usually within half an hour of wherever someone is located.”

About 4,000 patients come in each year. Roughly half are rabbits, squirrels or possums, song birds, so Gillespie says one of those is most likely to be the center’s 100,000^th patient, expected to arrive sometime this summer.