This Week at Liberty
July 15, 2025
Hoots, Howls, and Hollers
Megan Mosby
Executive Director
Rumor Has It…
On a regular basis, I am called on to answer questions from the public regarding policies that are practiced at Liberty Wildlife. It seems to me that many of you might have similar questions. Perhaps if I review some of them through this blog I will cover some of the questions that you haven’t gotten around to asking.
For instance, a kind lady drove up the other day before we were quite open, and was met at the gate by staff coming in to work. They allowed her in, along with a pigeon with a “broken wing”. She asked if we took in pigeons and was told, “Yes we do.” Then she said, since it had a broken wing, was the plan to just euthanize it? And, of course, the answer was a hard NO!
If a person is kind enough to help an injured animal, kind enough to find a place to bring it, and then actually bring it in…we want to help it! That doesn’t mean we can always fix it, but it does mean we will try and if all else fails, we will not let it suffer. So, dispel and forget any nasty rumor that we euthanize anything not native – that’s just not true. Another rumor that we used to hear…not so much anymore…is that we feed all non-raptors to the birds of prey on site. Another hard NO! We release thousands and thousands of passerines and other non-raptors every year. Rumor dispelled.
What About the Water Birds?
Another question asked regularly has to do with acceptance of ducks and geese at the facility. At this point…and it is just the current status…we are not allowed to accept water fowl because of the potential for the spread of Avian Flu. Water birds, even apparently healthy ones, are carriers of this disease. Especially since we have endangered species in our hospital and collection, the fear of a spread of the virus to these animals is just too risky. We hope that will change in the future. Fingers crossed!
Can’t I Talk to a Human?!
We also get messages from frustrated folks about leaving a message on our hotline. Yes, the hotline is basically an answering machine….but I can assure you that it is checked continuously by a very skillful and dedicated group of people. These volunteers are highly trained to help you with your needs regarding wildlife issues. Don’t hesitate to leave a message as they will almost always return the call within 30 minutes. They are here to help you with a cadre of resources, and they are the best! It would, in a perfect world, be great if we had the budget to hire a human to always answer the phone directly, but in this world right now that isn’t possible. Have faith in the current, amazing Hotline team. They have chosen to help you!
Sorry… Immediate Family Only
Another hard question to deal with is the person who has gone to all of the trouble to bring in an animal, and they are totally consumed by its ongoing status. They want to know what the outcome was. And unfortunately, we just can’t comply. We often take in over 100 animals a day (over 10,000 each year, remember!). And each animal is entered into our system, triaged, given a protocol for its care, and then cared for in that process. We are mostly a volunteer organization with a very busy but small medical staff. If we are called on to track down the progress of a particular animal, it would mean taking someone off the care of that animal and hundreds of other animals in the rehabilitation process, and that would slow down the practiced protocol for everyone. Closure for the rescuer just isn’t always possible. And for that frustration, I apologize. We just haven’t yet figured out how to make that happen without compromising the care of everyone. Know that we are working on ways to fix this….it just hasn’t happened yet. Know also, that everything that can be done to help is being done. We care about every creature that is brought in to us as if we brought it in ourselves.
Government Operation
A final question, at least for this blog, regards the assumption by many that we are federally, state, or municipally funded. Let me set the record straight. We are not. Everything we do for you and for wildlife in our environs is funded directly by you. Individuals, philanthropic foundations, family trusts, little kids’ allowances, etc. find their ways into our coffers to help us do what we do. If you have a problem with nuisance animals, an orphan on the ground, an animal brought in by your pet, or an injured animal in front of your house hit by a car and left to suffer on its own…we are here. And we are only here because so many people just like you support our work. And we are super careful about how that money is spent…and it is spent on the care and hopefully successful outcome for all animals involved. For that we thank you. And the creatures you cared about thank you too—we can see the gratitude in their eyes.
Thanks for all that you do to help wildlife, nature, and to keep the balance.
More Questions
If you have other good questions, please send them in. I will try my best to answer them in upcoming blog posts.
This Week @ Liberty
The intake total for the year is now up to 6530.
I feel like my mind is running a mile a minute these days. There’s always something happening (because, duh, this is a busy wildlife rehab center!) and there’s always something to pull you away, even on the best of days. Between all the new intakes we’ve taken since the last blog, plus everything behind the scenes (repair work, bird moves, and releases, planting new greenery, etc.) there never seems an end to the things that need done here at Liberty Wildlife.
Thankfully, we have a whole lot of amazing volunteers who go the extra mile to get those things done. I wish I could name them all, but alas, I cannot. There are over 350 incredible people who spend days, hours, weeks, here, repairing and fixing and re-repairing things to make sure both our permanent residents, and our rehab residents, are taken care of.
I know I’ve said it a million times, but I’ll say it again; thanks to everyone who makes this all work.
Imprinting: How to make sure you’re NOT doing it
Imprinting is something we’ve chatted about before here at Liberty Wildlife. In fact, many of our permanent residents are here because they are imprinted. But what does that mean? The definition of imprinting states “(of a young animal) come to recognize (another animal, person, or thing) as a parent or other object of habitual trust.” To put it more plainly: this animal no longer recognizes its own kind, and as a consequence of that, can no longer survive in the wild.
But how does it happen, exactly?
In the wild, raptors imprint on their parents to learn the specific skills they need to survive in the wild. This happens sometime between the time they hatch and the time they fledge. Nestlings are like teenagers, they’re making their way out of the nest but will often hang around mom and dad to continue learning the skills they need. And the truth of it is, that stage is different for every bird. A red-tailed hawk nestling doesn’t fledge for forty-two to forty-six days; an American kestrel is between twenty-eight to thirty-one days.
What we do know, though, is that when we get raptors in our hospital that young, we have to take extra precaution to ensure that imprinting doesn’t happen. Camouflage is worn, puppets are used, and silence is utilized to safeguard the hatchling, nestling, or even fledgling doesn’t imprint to us before moving out to a foster parent (and a foster parent is always going to be the best way these kids grow up and learn to do what they need).
If you’re wondering about the difference between imprinting and habituation, it’s simple: habituation means a raptor has become accustomed to our presence, but is still fully capable of surviving in the wild. Cochise, a resident bald eagle here at Liberty Wildlife, is a perfect example of habituation. As an immature bald eagle living in Wyoming in 2013, he did just fine…until he discovered a fish hatchery where, for an extended period of time, he was fed by staff. He was removed and taken further away to prevent him coming back, but unfortunately made his way back, and that non-fear of humans is what makes them dangerous (not only to themselves, but to us, too).
So, how do you prevent imprinting from happening? When you find a young raptor, it’s imperative they are brought to a quality rehab facility like ours, as soon as possible. You’ll want to keep them in a warm, dark, quiet spot, preferably away from human voices and noise. And you’ll want to make sure you don’t feed them and you don’t want to hold them, either. And these last points are important because I know they are super cute when they’re itty bitty… But that’s how it all starts—being around us, being fed by us, hearing our voices—they learn to associate themselves with us, and we unfortunately cannot teach them those survival skills they will need out in the wild. When an imprinted bird comes through our doors, there is little we can do but keep them here with us. And while I don’t deny Liberty Wildlife offers a great second chance, the goal is always to get them back out to do what they’re meant to do.
Notable Mentions
We’re coming up to the end of July, which means public hours continues through Wednesday July 30th. (Open on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 9am-11am). In August, we’ll shut our doors for the month to work on repairs around the site (including new mammal enclosures!) as well as any odds and ends we need to hatch out before our education season gets restarted in September.
Without further ado, here are this week’s notable mentions:
- A kiddo chuckwalla makes a pit stop after being found “squished” beneath an unknown item (1 picture)
- A jackrabbit kid versus a desert cottontail kid; can you tell who is who? (4 pictures)
- Ayra the red-tailed hawk gets some sunbathing in at ANDAZ in Scottsdale (1 picture)
As always, thanks for hanging till the end! We’ll keep you posted on upcoming events happening this fall (a lot of really fun ones) and what to expect when we re-open for the fall.
Until next time!
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September 10, 2024
I know I’ve been a broken record this year in talking about taking time off to explore the world and get back to nature.
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