Saturday, July 11, 2026

A Haven for Injured Animals

Today we are visiting the North Island Wildlife Recovery centre... We honestly thought this was actually in the North Island area (like north of Campbell River), but no... it is near Parksville!


That is a beary toothy smiley... Can you see me??

This is a happening place!! With schoolbus loads of kids and lots of visitors!

And yes, bears feature pretty large here...

Which is as it should be... 


I feel really at home here and this guy...

Is my type of bear!!! Hullo fellow stuffie!


Majestic creatures, aren't they?

And the cougars aren't bad either...


They have a tonne of birds that, for one reason or another, were nursed back to health but can't be released into the wild. This is an albino raven who needs protection from the sun.

This is Casey, he was found as a baby on the ground, with no nest nearby. He had a severely dislocated wing and would never be able to fly... 


So now he lives here and is an educational consultant!

WE found a map and... OMG... there is a LOT to see here!!

They had webcams in the bear rehabilitation habitat...

There are several bears in there right now, getting ready to be released into the wild at some point.


They had lots of owls... This gray owl was hit by a car in the Interior and had irreparable wing damage, so he lives here...

The place is really set up to appeal to kids and there was this clump of boulders where you could go through... like in a cave system...

Mmmm... we saw some rats scurrying around earlier and... well...

... I'm going to pass on going through there... mice are one thing... rats are a completely other thing1


They had a wildlife garden...

With all kinds of cool, native plants.

And there was even a fairy garden!!

That's the Mad-hatter from Alice in Wonderland!

A lot to see...


Of course fairies can live in treehouses too!

And apparently some live in RVs too...

And have little campfires...

This was pretty cool!!


 

 

 

4 comments:

  1. You know, there's a Norse Viking story about Ravens (or Crows, depending on which variety you prefer!!) The story is, that originally they were all naturally white - Odin had two ravens called Hugin and Munin (white ones) who he sent down to Valhalla (the underworld) on a fact finding expedition of some sort but when they came back with their report, they'd turned black from all the smoke and ash!! Which is why ravens (and crows) are now all black - although Andrea has seen some crows with a solitary white feather in one wing, or some other white markings. Apparently there's a Lakota Crow story that's similar to the Norse Viking one.

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    1. We have a similar legend on the west coast - In several Indigenous mythologies, the raven is known as a clever trickster and culture hero. In Haida legend, the Raven was originally pure white, but his feathers became singed and stained with soot when he stole the sun, moon, stars, and fire from a greedy chief and released them into the sky to bring light and warmth to the earth.

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  2. Casey, Educational consultant? Seems like a good job. Love how the mad hatter has a cup of tea in his hand.

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