Busiest year ever at Woodlands Wildlife Sanctuary 

 

With
the COVID-19 pandemic causing many to stay home and go out only for the
essentials, Monika Melichar, the founder and director of Woodlands
Wildlife Sanctuary, had thought less people would be out on the roads.
And that would mean there was going to be less animals getting hurt or
orphaned and brought to the sanctuary. “We were kind of looking forward
to a slower paced season,” said Melichar. “And that is absolutely not
the case. The case is, we are like, overwhelmed.”

 

This year has
become Woodlands’ busiest ever. With over 120 animals in the sanctuary’s
care, some needing attention every 15 to 20 minutes, it’s almost at
capacity.

 

“Even though there’s less cars on the road, there’s as many
[baby animals], if not more, becoming orphaned due to traffic
collisions … there’s people speeding more during this time and it’s
huge. I guess, because the roads are clear, there’s not as much traffic,
they think they can go faster,” said Melichar. The Ontario Ministry of
Transportation says that driver inattention and speed are common factors
in animal-vehicle crashes.
Adding to Woodlands’ busy season in a
positive way, Melichar said more people are stopping to help wildlife
these days. “People are more observant, and have more time, possibly
when they are travelling, to stop and help [injured animals],” said
Melichar. “I think this COVID actually gave us a reason to reflect on
the environment and nature around us and be a little more appreciative
of the wildlife that we live with side-by-side.”

 

This year’s
unpredictable weather has also been a contributing factor to the
sanctuary filling up so quickly. Melichar said turbulent weather makes
it harder for baby animals to thrive and harder for their parents to get
them the food they need.
“It was after the snowfall, after that
crazy whatever it was around Mother’s Day in May, that our sanctuary
absolutely exploded with animals,” said Melichar. “Every day we’re
getting half a dozen newbies.”
Despite places like animal shelters
and veterinary practices being ruled an essential service, Melichar said
some other places like Woodlands in surrounding areas have chosen to
close or run at a very limited capacity as a safety precaution amid
COVID-19. This is yet another reason Woodlands has been busier than
ever. But Melichar said Woodlands won’t turn any animal away.

 

This
means the shelter needs more volunteers than ever. “This week we’ve
taken on four new volunteers because we need to be able to keep up,”
said Melichar. “It literally takes one volunteer to just look after a
group of baby birds and then we have all the mammals too that need to be
hand-fed and things like that.”
Woodlands is 100 per cent volunteer
based and non-profit, running entirely on donations. Due to COVID-19,
many of their more experienced volunteers are not able to come into the
sanctuary and help because they are in high-risk groups – meaning they
are more likely to catch the virus. Melichar said all the volunteers who
can come in have been self-isolating beforehand and that they are very
careful anytime they go somewhere. “We can’t take any risks,” said
Melichar. “It’s very difficult for us to actually have social distancing
of six feet because we work out of … small trailers and we need to
make sure that our volunteers that do come [haven’t had] any potential
exposure.” Woodlands has personal protective equipment for all of its
volunteers.

 

Melichar said the number one way people can help out the
sanctuary is by volunteering. Even if you can’t help out inside the
sanctuary, Woodlands works with driver volunteers. Drivers deliver
injured animals to the sanctuary, where there is a contactless transfer.
“We don’t allow the public on the property, we have to go and greet
them at the gate where we social distance with them,” said Melichar.
“Our donations are down because of that, because they can’t come to the
gift shop or to actually spend some time talking to us … any help people
can offer us is great.”

 

Drivers can also assist with supply runs, of
which there are many lately. Melichar said it can be a challenge to
plan ahead and do the orders on time. “With the amount of animals we
have, we deplete our stock quickly … we are buying tens of thousands of
crickets every week,” said Melichar. “The feed stores are good as long
as we call ahead … but with the live insects that we have to feed a lot
of these birds and ducklings  … there’s nobody up here that sells them,
we have to either ship them in through Purolator or actually go down to
Peterborough to pick them up.”

 

Melichar said that Woodlands has more
volunteers than they’ve ever had. But they still need more because there
are more animals in the sanctuary than ever before. Melichar said that
if people can’t volunteer, they can support Woodlands through monetary
donations or by purchasing an item the sanctuary requires off of their
Amazon wish list, which can be found at woodlandswildlifesanctuary.ca. If you see an injured animal or one you suspect has been orphaned, you can call Woodlands at 705-286-1133.

 

“Because
it is baby season right now, people are going to come across a lot of
youngsters who do not have their parents sitting beside them watching
over them. So they need to stop and take a moment to assess the
situation to see whether a baby really needs to be rescued,” said
Melichar. “If they are not sure, then please call us. And you know, we
can step them through the situation and find out what to do next.”