Lesy Prague: Rescue station in half time: Received over 2.5 thousand patients in the first half of the year
8/17/2022 8:40 a.m. | Press Release
The first half of the year is behind us, but it certainly doesn’t look like there will be any break yet. We are currently also roughly in the season of cubs, which is the most demanding period for our rescue station every year.
During the first half of this year, we treated a total of 2,560 new patients. Among them were, for example, 365 wild ducks, 156 hedgehogs, 67 squirrels or 46 swans. A large part of this year’s patients are already back in nature, but even so, we are still quite full at the station. Right now, 995 animals are being treated or recuperated here, most of which are young due to the season.
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Cubs, which you would come across at our station at every turn, come into our care for many different reasons. It happens that someone, either intentionally or by mistake, destroys their nest, that they are attacked by a predator, or that they lose their parents, who die, for example, when hitting a glass surface, in the clutches of a cat, under the wheels of a car or as a result of other accidents. Unpredictable weather can also take its toll: If it’s too hot, for example, the birds jump out of their heated nests prematurely (especially the one located on the dome can get extremely hot), and strong storms and winds can also cause serious complications.
By the way, the young have also occupied all the previous “milestone” positions – the 1,000th adopted animal this year was an orphaned baby swan and the 2,000th animal was a baby wood pigeon. (And because in many patient numbers are increasing rapidly, before we prepared this summary, we also received patient number 3000 in mid-July. Can you guess that it was also a baby? You guessed right, it was another baby wood pigeon??).
Small baby wood pigeon. Hrivnáči are our frequent patients. In the last three years, they have always been at the top of the list of species most often admitted to our rescue station. It is probably related to the fact that this originally forest species is getting more and more used to the urban environment and is becoming a permanent part of it. Previously, woodpeckers only nested in forests and trees, today there is no excuse for nesting in boxes on balconies in cities.
And what patients did we take care of specifically? Of the total number of 2,560 animals received, there were, for example:
365 wild ducks,
255 wood pigeons,
159 tits,
156 hedgehogs,
127 pages,
122 hares,
83 lovebird,
72 blackbirds,
67 squirrel,
58 rorys,
46 swans,
36 kestrels.
On the other hand, among the rarest among our patients so far this year were, for example, a peregrine falcon, a spotted snake, 2 large woodpeckers, 2 woodcocks, 3 smooth snakes, 3 common grebes, 16 barn swallows, 25 bats (6 different species in total) or 38 jackdaws
Among all these patients, there were 1,442 small, independent cubs that required intensive care, 1,013 animals needed our help due to injuries:
after hitting obstacles, most often glass surfaces (266 patients),
from another animal, such as a cat, dog or other predator (357 patients),
after a collision with a car or train (153 patients),
from garden equipment, most often string mowers (13 patients).
Unfortunately, the reason for taking in small orphaned hedgehogs is often the injury or death of their mother. If the mother hedgehog does not return to the nest, the hungry young will climb out after a while and look for help. This female Eastern hedgehog was seriously injured by a string mower. The female came to us with an extensive infected cut wound. Fortunately, she survived and I will eventually return to nature, but what happened to her cubs, which she probably had somewhere, I don’t know.
We received the most patients in May (912) and June (904), in both of these months we received an average of 30 animals per day. We returned 750 animals back to nature in the first half of the year, and we released almost another 250 animals in July. Less than a thousand animals are currently being treated with us.
At the same time, we would like to thank you very much for all animal patients. They came into our care thanks to you – the people who found them and did not hesitate to call for help. Thank you for not being indifferent and for helping even the wild inhabitants of Prague, problems and injuries are often – not intentionally – caused by humans and human civilization. Our current exhibition on Smíchovská náplavka, which you can visit until August 8, is about the fact that we do not live alone in Prague and that wild animals are also Praguers.
We also thank from the bottom of our hearts those who support us and help us both materially and financially. Thanks to you, we can provide our patients with everything they need for treatment and, in the case of babies, for successful growth. If you like the work, you can want us on our arbitrary transparent account 000000-5918916349/0800, the adoption of some permanently handicapped animals that remain more, or the sponsorship of a selected animal species. All information can be found in the Sponsorship and Adoption section. Thank you
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author: Press Release