Willowbrook Wildlife Center

I needed to go to the library of the College of DuPage. Since I pass the Willowbrook Wildlife Center on the way to the library, and since this blog has been a little light on "nature", I planned on stopping there after I went to the library. The center is part of the DuPage Forest Preserve.

I haven't been there since my kids were little. It has changed. Most of the displays in the back contained birds.

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But they had some reptiles (turtle, three snakes).

But what I find interesting is the hospital.

I was trying to get some of the 6 incubators along the far wall in the background. The two you can see were labeled "grey squirrel". And I see there are some squirrels in the cages in the middle of the room. Below we see that up front there were two baby racoons and a mouse. Note the stuffed animals in the cages in the middle of the room. Are they surrogate moms?

At the front of the center, they had several other displays including a mock up of a house to document how to deal with animal pests.

I unfortunately chopped the red text of the sign about "eyes". But the example provides more information than the words.

I picked up a brochure on how to deal with skunks. We have dealt with two racoons and an opossum in our yard. But when we had a skunk living under our den, we called the pros. The skunk had been spotted walking beside our house with some little skunks following her. Now I'm studying the chipmunk/ground-squirrel page because that is what is under our den.

The outside area has a lot more cages than I remember. I don't know if it is because it is bigger than when I last visited years ago, or if I was so busy watching the kids that I never noticed the animals.

The sign on the Red Foxes cage reads:

One of these foxes was found in 2003 on a Lombard homeowner's back porch. She was suffering a badly fractured frount right leg. Due to the severity of her injury, Willlobrook surgeons amputated her leg.

The other fox is a young male that was found in 2008 as an orphan. During an early examination, it was found the fox was deaf and cannot be released. He also has a nervous habit of circling when he gets excited.

I took several pictures because the guy was active. Finally, the gal stood up and turned around and then layed back down. I could see it was her right-front leg that had to be removed. Unfortunately, she turned faster than I could get a good picture of her.

Most of their cages are not very big.

But their flight cage is big.

I did not spot a sign as to why this bald eagle is a permanent resident. I'm glad I was able to catch him looking at me. I did not realize that an eagle can turn its head as much as an owl can.

When I Googled the center, I came across a Tribune article about another eagle.

I include the  Barred Owl cage even though the photo was not very good as another example cage because the one from Illinois came through their wildlife clinic while my daughter was working there as a volunteer vet student. I saw only one of the three owls when I visited the cage. I'll let you play "wheres waldo".

The left sign reads:

Look into my eyes...

Owl eyes are very different from our own. Their eyes are relatively large for improved sight at night. Plus, their eyes are not capable of "rolling" because a bony structure hold thems in place. They compensate by having a long flexible neck that can turn 270-degrees compared to a human's 180-degrees. In addition, owls have three eyelids for added protection. 

The  sign next to it reads:

Barred Owl

Two of the barred owls have vision impairment. Both wings were injured on the other bird, possibly by a collision with a car. All three birds were transferred from other rehab centers; downstate Illinois, Rockford, and Kane County.