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Thank you for helping us save endangered animals

On the deck of a boat anchored off Salt Spring Island, a highly endangered animal was found freezing and near death.

We need your support to help save endangered, threatened and all injured wildlife – more than 23,300 cases in the last year alone!

The endangered Purple Martin nestling was barely moving when the owners of the boat found the baby bird.

With no sign of the bird’s parents or nest, the finders contacted the Wildlife Rescue’s Help Centre and received key directions that would help save this baby’s life.

Your support makes it possible for our Support Centre to be open 7 days a week, responding to wildlife inquiries such as this one, from caring British Columbians.  Each day, the Centre’s team of volunteers and staff provide lifesaving information to help wounded animals receive the critical help they need for survival.

The Support Centre has handled more than 19,000 inquiries in 2019.

The rare Purple Martin baby bird was rushed to the Wildlife Rescue Medical Centre in Burnaby, where an initial exam uncovered internal trauma, bruising and swelling. Though this delicate bird felt cool to the touch, he was still bravely clinging to life.

The largest of the swallow family, Purple Martins were virtually extinct in the province 50 years ago. Given that this precious animal is so critical to his species, our medical team was determined to help this little fighter survive.

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This year, Wildlife Rescue celebrates 40 years of partnering with you to save wild lives throughout our communities.  During our four decades, we have cared for more than 115,000 animals and – with your support – are working to help many more in the years ahead.

For this reason, your assistance is urgently needed to continue doing this good and important work. Please make a gift today of $20, $25, $30 or more to help endangered, threatened and all injured wildlife. Most of our funding comes from caring and supportive individuals like you.

The important donation you make today saves lives and supports programs like these:

• New medical centre and improved equipment to help and care for greater numbers of injured and orphaned animals.
• Specialized accommodation for baby animals where volunteers can make sure they are warm, fed and nurtured as they grow.
• Expanding the Wildlife Help Centre to handle the larger volume of rescue calls.
• Growing our field response team to safely recover more injured animals.

Your generous gift ensures another 40 years of successfully helping endangered, injured and threatened animals.

After 34 days of specialized care by volunteers and staff, there was more work to be done to save the endangered Purple Martin baby. He needed the right place to be returned to the wild. With this baby bird’s life in our hands, we reached out to Kiyoshi Takahashi – a long-time supporter of Wildlife Rescue – who has built dozens of Purple Martin nesting boxes at Port Moody’s Rocky Point Park, successfully attracting a thriving colony of 27 nesting pairs.  After much thought, we decided that this would be the perfect location to release and unite him with a new family.

“The baby was confused at first. Everything was completely new. You could see him listening to the other Purple Martins nearby. When he finally flew into the sky, the other martins, amazingly, flew down and joined him in mid-air.”

It is, without a doubt, through the generosity of friends like you that enabled us to care for this baby Purple Martin and help him survive – thereby also saving a critical member of this highly endangered species. Together, we will continue to grow and help more animals that suffer from human disturbances in their habitat.

Because of you, these animals receive a second chance at life in the wild. We sincerely thank you for your care and support. 

If you would like your gift of life to go even further, please join our monthly Wildlife Rescue FREEDOM Plan. Your monthly donation will go a long way to saving injured animals year-round. Thousands of injured animals depend on us… and on your support.

Yes, I want to help save wildlife!

Photo Credit: Wildlife Rescue Volunteer, Paul Steeves.

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Posted in Wildlife Stories
Tags: animals, holiday, holiday giving, purple martins, wildlife, wildlife bc, wildlife hospital, wildlife rescue