New England Wildlife Centers

Welcome to New England Wildlife Center

Healing Happens Here

Wildlife Medicine

From hummingbirds to snapping turtles. 225 species cared for. All patients returned back to Freedom.

Odd Pet Vet

Caring for your Scaled, Feathered, and furred friends. Appointments available 7 days a week. Boarding available from $15/day.

Call 781-682-4878 to schedule an appointment

Education and Mentoring

Free choice learning by doing. All learning styles welcome.

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Community

The South Shore's Community Hub. Join us for: Saturday Night open Mic, Birthday Parties, Guided Tours

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NEWC is where People and Animals Thrive!

We run two non-profit wildlife veterinary hospitals and education centers located in Barnstable and Weymouth, Massachusetts. Together we work to provide veterinary and rehabilitative care to the sick, injured, and orphaned wild animals. In the process of caring for these patients we work to educate members of the public and spread the message of environmental conservation. Each day we work to preserve the rich natural history of Massachusetts, Cape Cod and the islands, one animal – and one person at a time.

Follow Our Wild Patients!

thecapewildlifecenter

Cape Cod Branch of New England Wildlife Centers. Helping People and animals 🙂🦉

Look who’s feeling better!!! This black crowne

This Virginia opossum fought off a cougar and live

And just when we thought baby season was over…

🚨Rare Patient Alert 🚨 Black crowned night h $🚨Rare Patient Alert 🚨 Black crowned night herons are not a rare species in the sense of population size, but we don’t commonly get them as patients in the hospital. They are actually one of the most widespread heron in the world. They can live in both fresh and salt water wetlands. As their name implies they like to do most of the hunting at dusk and into the night so they don’t have to compete with other species of herons. This Black crowned night heron was brought over by Bourne Department of Natural Resources after a Good Samaritan noticed the bird lethargic with minimal response when approached. On admission our veterinary team found it to be moderately dehydrated and quite thin. There was an area of thickened scar tissue over one of this legs but no evidence of any fresh wounds or fractures. We administered fluids for rehydration, an anti-inflammatory for possible head trauma, and nutritional support. We’ll be monitoring closely over the next 48 hours to see how he responds to treatment. Please send healing thoughts his way! #blackcrownednightheron #heronsofinstagram #newenglandwildlife #birdsofnewengland #wildliferehab #wildlifemedicine #avianmedicine$

This red-tailed hawk is flying high again with not $This red-tailed hawk is flying high again with not just a second, but third chance at life. He was brought in by a Good Samaritan after he was found on the side of the road stunned. We suspect he most likely collided with a car and was suffering from head trauma. When our veterinary team took x-rays to check for any fractures we fortunately did not find any however, we did discover that at some point in his life he had been shot! We did not find any open wounds so we suspect it was an old occurrence. The bullet was lodged in his skin and not interfering with any major organs so our team decided to leave it in place. We administered meds to treat his head trauma and monitored his improvement. Before long he was active enough to be placed in an outdoor enclosure where we could monitor his movements better. After about a week flying around out there he was back to full strength and ready to go and he took to the sky in no time. We are happy we were able to help him dodge at least dodge this “bullet”. #redtailedhawk #hawks #hawksofinstagram #birdsofprey #wildlife #wildlifemedicine #wildliferehabilitation$

Squirrel proof… not so much Just before closing

This Double Crested Cormorant is back on the high

Looks like someone forgot to fly the cuckoos nest…

This yellow-billed cuckoo was admitted this afternoon after it was found grounded with blood in its mouth. We suspect it was likely a victim of today’s high winds and crash landed.

Cuckoos are infrequent, but not uncommon Summer residents here in the Commonwealth. However, they have usually migrated by this time. It would appear this individual delayed his travel plans a bit and was caught in this most recent bout of bad weather. He is currently on oxygen in our clinic as our staff works to stabilize him. We are hoping to turn his health around quickly so that he is strong enough to make it to his southern destination before the weather gets any colder.

We’ll keep you posted on his status, keep your fingers (and wings) crossed for his recovery!
#cuckoosnest #birdsofinstagram #flysouth #wildliferescue

NIGHT OF A THOUSAND FACES IS ALMOST HERE! ITS A SP

Good news friends! After a long and messy stint in

These young foxes are high stepping to freedom aft

The journey continues for these herring gulls that

That washing process has begun! Our first batch

Test Wash 🫧🎵 We recoeved 37 seagulls covere

This fry-day evening we received another 14 herrin

We are posting at the end of a long greasy night🍟🪿

At 8:00 pm this evening our hospital received 24 oiled gulls, who reportedly found their way into a truck carrying used cooking oil. They had apparently been attracted to the smell of fried foods and had landed in the back of the truck where the viscous oil soaked through their feathers. The Grafton animal control officer was able to catch the majority of the birds who had all been rendered flightless by the oil. Their conditions range from mildly oiled to critical condition and unfortunately several had severe injuries and did not make it.

Our goal for this evening is to assess and stabilize the gulls. The washing process will start in the next few days once they have had a chance to de-stress and eat a good meal. Washing an oiled bird is an extremely labor intensive process and It can take up to an hour to wash each bird!

We were very thankful that we had our oil spill response kits on hand and we’re able to help, and grateful to the officer who was able to capture these birds and make the trip this late.

We will follow up tomorrow with an update on their condition. Tonight we are ready to sleep and wash off the smell of french fries

If you would like to make a donation to help us provide care for these birds please follow the link in our bio. Thank you!

Missing the summer days but happy many of these ba

An Egret with some regrets… This Great Egret wa $An Egret with some regrets… This Great Egret was brought to our hospital after it was found down on the ground unable to fly. On exam our hospital staff found him to be very off balanced with a quiet mentation. We believe he may have crash landed and suffered head trauma. Fortunately there were no other injuries of fractures seen on x-rays. Our veterinary team provided supportive fluids and some anti-inflammatories to help reduce any possible brain swelling. By the end of the day he was standing so was moved to an outdoor enclosure to be able to stretch his legs to avoid the chances of developing capture myopathy. Long legged wading birds are very prone to getting capture myopathy which is a condition that causes muscle tissue death as a result of exertion, struggle, or stress during the capture, transport, or even treatment process while the bird is restrained. The destruction of the muscle tissue causes physiological acid/ base changes in tissue and blood that can result in death. Treatment with fluids and vitamin supplements is not always successful so minimizing occurrence through low stress handling techniques and minimizing restraint time is key. We are pleased to say that by the next day we found the egret flying around the enclosure looking for an escape. We happily obliged and sent him on his way to hopefully continue living life with no more egrets 😉 #greategret #greategretsofinstagram #birdsofinstagram #wadingbirds #wildlifemedicine #wildliferescue #freebird$

Some of the many patients receiving care at our ho

Our orphaned raccoons are finally ready to be rele

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