Carolina Wildlife Center, Irmo, SC

This place rocks!!  I had been interested in hosting an activity for our homeschool support group, REACH, and decided on Carolina Wildlife Care Center in Irmo, SC.  Turns out they don't do tours only school visits but they were having their annual Wildlife "Baby Shower" this weekend and so I organized a group to go to it yesterday, Sunday. They had a variety of animals, Wildlife demos and kid crafts. It was an exceptional experience.  I have never been so impressed with a place before. They are very well organized, they are very knowledgeable and the animals are varied and they are just so cute. 

We got to see many injured animals that have been rehabilitated. Some are eventually returned to the wild but if they are not able to feed themselves without help then they remain to be used as an educational tool. Several box turtles were there, one had not been given the special light it needed (note aquarium lights are NOT good lights for box turtles) and had been fed a diet of cat food! Ack!  As a result his shell had not formed properly and was unable to grow normally.  You can see him here:

Because the shell was deformed, the turtle is not able to close up inside the shell, so he needs to remain in captivity in order to survive.  Another turtle was chewed on by a dog and about 1/3 of the shell was missing resulting in the poor turtle not being able to hide inside his shell as well. 

We saw some abandoned baby raccoons, baby opossums, snakes, birds, and a donor rabbit named Trixie. Trixie the rabbit is the only domesticated animal there, she provides cecotropes for baby rabbits to be able to survive, as its filled with tons of nutrients. Trixie:

Here is a baby rabbit that was just fed with a tiny syringe and was born only 2 days ago:

They also have a beautiful red tailed hawk; his name is Monroe:

and they have this GORGEOUS Barred Owl, named Luna that I want to take home and adopt, she is beautiful.  Luna lost her eye in a car accident and was sent to Carolina Wildlife to remain in captivity because she won't hunt live mice, or just can't seem to do it. They had tested her out in NC to see if she would hunt live mice but she was unable to. So they sent her to Carolina Wildlife Center.  Isn't she just exquisite?

We also met Georgie, a 3 legged Opossum.  He had his front left arm amputated due to a bone infection.  He was one of several babies found in the pouch of his mama who had been hit by a police officer's car.  But he is doing well and he is so friendly.  I have a new respect for Opossum's now I know about them.  They are not dangerous, they don't carry diseases, most of the time they are immune to many diseases that infect other animals such as cats and dogs and humans. They very rarely get rabies. They think its due to their low body temperature. The opossum can't see very well so he/she relies on its nose to smell for food.  They are also the only marsupial animal in North America and they are one of the few mammals to have opposable thumbs like us and the Great Apes. they eat rodents and are beneficial to gardeners! So don't hurt opossums!

After we toured the center and listened to the presentations we did some crafts.  They have stations where you could make a pine-cone bird feeder, do face paints, and also cut out birds and decorate them with feathers, sequins etc.  

Face Painting, Squirrels!

Overall it was a blast and I recommend this event to everyone.  They have summer camps and even though they don't do tours they do need volunteers and donations as they are a non-profit organization.  Go to their website to learn more!  http://www.carolinawildlife.org/

There is also a wildlife organization near Charleston too: http://www.keeperofthewild.org/

You can see more pictures below on the slideshow.