Welcome, what we do and who we are

Greetings. We are glad that you found us!

Join us on this strange and wonderful journey we call wildlife rehabilitation. In our circles we call each other rehabbers, but what exactly is wildlife rehabilitation?

Wildlife rehabilitators are individuals or organizations like ours that are licensed and permitted by federal and state governments to medically treat animals that are injured or have been separated from their parents(orphaned). The federal and state governments regulate who does this by checking how much experience the individual or organization has working with different types of wild animals and whether or not the facility has the appropriate caging or enclosures to keep the animal healthy, safe, and able to exercise well enough for release. We are NOT given money from either federal or state governments and most of our operating costs come from kind and concerned members of the public who bring us sick, hurt, and orphaned wildlife. It is our hope to return every injured animal back to the wild, but in some cases if the damage is too great, they must be humanely euthanized after careful consideration of injuries.

The Falcon Batchelor Bird of Prey Center at the Miami Science Museum receives approximately 500 animals per year from all over Miami-Dade county and occasionally Broward County and the Florida Keys. Of these animals brought to our center, around 150 on the average are raptors aka birds of prey and are admitted and treated by our medical staff. The remainder of these animals are stabilized on arrival and then are transported to other facilities or individuals that also specialize in different types of wildlife.

Our home is the Miami Science Museum on the outskirts of downtown Miami Florida. We are part of the museum's wildlife center and some of our former patients that were not well enough to be released back in the wild now live in the Museum's wildlife center as ambassadors to help our visitors learn about the perils our wildlife face in a rapidly developing urban environment. The wildlife center also operates an outreach program that visits schools and other organizations to teach our youth about the wonders of these animals so that they may carry the torch of wildlife conservation well on into the future.

So thank you for visiting us, come back again soon. We look forward to sharing our journey with you, you never know, we might meet you along the way.