Check Out Some Hope for Wildlife Videos!The breakfast of champions! Well, champion herring gulls, anyway. There's nothing quite like some freeze-dried shrimp to start the day, and this orphaned gull certainly is enjoying them. Herring Gulls are the ultimate food opportunists! From diving for fresh fish and smashing open clams on the rocks to snatching up stray leftovers , their diet is incredibly diverse. They are clever hunters, tool users, and scavengers! Click HERE to see a baby gull gobble up their meal! ____________________________________________________________________ Do you like Northern Flickers? Cause we got a bunch of 'em! These 12 nestling flickers arrived from two separate nests that were discovered when their trees were cut down. It's a lot of hungry mouths to feed! If you're a woodpecker enthusiast, or just a bird lover in general, you can help them out by purchasing some canned superworms. We have them on our Amazon wishlist! We are in need of bunch - these little ones are eating us out of house and home. Quick fun fact! Northen Flickers will drum on metal. In spring, a male will hammer on gutters, chimney caps, or street signs because the loud resonant clangs carry farther than wood, which actually advertises his territory better. He's not trying to feed, he's basically showing off. Click HERE to see the Northern Flickers devour their worms! ____________________________________________________________________ Porcupettes need climbing practice! Did you know North American porcupines are elite tree climbers? Even though they look heavy and lumbering on the ground, they spend much of their lives high in the forest canopy foraging for leaves, twigs, and bark. Their bodies are built for climbing! They have long, curved claws that easily dig into tree trunks to support their weight. They also have textured paws that are deeply pebbled on the footpads to provide maximum friction against bark. And we can't forget that famous tail! It's also very strong, and they use it as braking support as they move up the tree. Click HERE to see the porcupette climbing their cage! ____________________________________________________________________ Lunch is more fun if it's still moving! This young orphaned Common Eider is enjoying a big bowl of mealworms. The easiest way to ensure growing animals have the proper nutritional profile is to feed them what they eat at each stage of life. Helping adult animals heal from injuries or illness also requires the proper nutrition. That can be challenging because animals eat a wide variety of different foods, so we have to source a wide array of stuff to eat. Common Eiders are specialized marine diving ducks that feed on things like mussels, clams, scallops, and marine worms, And they swallow the whole thing - including shells! So how does that work? They have two chambers to their stomachs! First, the proventriculus soaks the mussel in acid and enzymes, starting to break down the shell. Then food moves into the gizzard, where eiders have muscles so powerful it does the job of our teeth, grinding everything thing to small fragments. So do we feed also them mussels and scallops? Yep we certainly do! This little one will get his fill as he gets older. Click HERE to see the Common Eider munching on meal worms! ____________________________________________________________________ Someone's hungry! Someone's almost always hungry. It's a lot of work caring for baby birds because they require frequent feedings due to a perfect storm of extreme metabolic demands, physical limitations, and lightning-fast growth. Feedings for nestlings could be every 15 minutes, and for older babies every 20 to 30! And that's 12 to 14 hours a day! And we will have hundreds over the next few months. Phew! Birds grow at a pace that far exceeds most mammals. For example, a baby songbird can grow from a naked, blind hatchling to a fully feathered fledgling capable of leaving the nest in just 14 days. To sustain this explosive bone, muscle, and feather development, their bodies require a non-stop influx of high-protein nutrients. Not to mention the lose a lot of heat because they have a high surface-to-volume ratio, so they must constantly burn calories just to maintain their internal temperature. And a baby bird cannot eat one large meal to last the day. Their stomach and crop capacity is incredibly small, meaning they can only hold a tiny amount of food at a single time. Imagine how busy mom and dad must be! Click HERE to see a nestling’s busy feeding routine!
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