The Wildlife Center of Virginia, an internationally acclaimed teaching and research hospital for wildlife and conservation medicine located in Waynesboro, has admitted the 55,000th patient of its history – a Virginia Opossum that was orphaned when its mother was struck and killed by a car near Keezletown in Rockingham County. 

       Patient #55,000 was one of a litter of 13 orphaned opossums, found in poor condition with their mother’s body.  The little opossums were first taken to the Rockingham-Harrisonburg SPCA; seven survived and were transported to the Wildlife Center on Saturday, May 22.  The opossums – about two months old – have been treated with antibiotics; they will require up to two months of additional care before they will be able to fend for themselves in the wild.

       The Wildlife Center was founded as an emergency room and hospital for wildlife in 1982.  Among the 55,000 animals treated and cared for during the Center’s 27-year history are more than 200 species of native birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians. 

      During 2009, for example, the Center admitted a total of 2,534 patients from all across Virginia.  Included were many common species, including 280 Eastern Cottontail Rabbits; 252 Virginia Opossums; 210 Eastern Gray Squirrels; and 107 American Robins.  Also admitted were 40 Bald Eagles – a single-year record during the Center’s 27-year history. 

      Saturday, May 22 was the busiest day for new patients thus far in 2010.  A total of 28 new patients were admitted, including seven Virginia Opossums, five Eastern Cottontail Rabbits, four American Robins, three Raccoons, two Pigeons, and an American Kestrel, an Eastern Box Turtle, an Eastern Gray Squirrel, a European Starling, a Northern Cardinal, a Northern Mockingbird, and a Woodchuck.

       The goal of the Center is to “treat to release” – to restore patients to health and return as many as possible to the wild.  The Center provides quality medical care for the sick and injured, and sustained, quality foster care so that animals may be returned to the wild with the ability to survive, and thrive, in their native habitats.   

       Like Patient #55,000 and its siblings, a significant number of the Wildlife Center’s patients each year are admitted because of automobile accidents.  Roadside trash often lures wildlife to roads and road-sides, often at their peril.  An important theme of the Wildlife Center’s education programs is that “Critters Don’t Need Litter” – that the apple core tossed from a car, although biodegradable, may attract an opossum or rabbit into harm’s way.  That animal may itself attract a hawk or owl – in fact, a significant number of the raptors seen as patients at the Wildlife Center have been hit by cars. 

       The Wildlife Center of Virginia is an internationally acclaimed teaching and research hospital for wildlife and conservation medicine.  The Center’s public education programs share insights gained through the care of injured and orphaned wildlife, in hopes of reducing human damage to wildlife.  The Center trains veterinary and conservation professionals from all over the world and is actively involved in comprehensive wildlife health studies and the surveillance of emerging diseases.