The Blue Ridge Wildlife Center’s usual guests have feathers, fur or scales. But now, humans are welcome to visit its brand-new wildlife walk: an outdoor pathway where the hospital’s wildlife ambassadors -- patients who cannot be released back to the wild – can be observed up close.
The multi-level path guides visitors around the ambassadors’ enclosures, which house a variety of wildlife -- from a peregrine falcon to woodland box turtles.
Dopey, an eastern screech owl, is a favorite on the wildlife walk.
BRWC is a full-service wildlife hospital located in Boyce, Virginia, which is about a 45-minute drive from Manassas. The hospital treats injured and sick wild animals native to Virginia and then releases them back into the wild.
BRWC is about 20 years old and operated out of a small home for 14 years before it moved into a state-of-the art wildlife hospital on the same property in 2016. That year, the hospital treated 1,639 patients. In 2020, it treated more than 2,800 patients and is already trending about 20% above last year’s numbers, according to Annie Bradfield, Blue Ridge Wildlife Center’s executive director.
A view of the wildlife walk at Blue Ridge Wildlife Center, in Boyce, Va.
The wildlife center receives no state or federal funding and cannot charge for its services, because its patients are all wild animals. “So, everything is completely funded by donations.” Bradfield said.
Meet Jefferson, Dopey and Snow
The wildlife ambassadors fall into three categories: avian, mammals and reptiles. Each animal has its own interesting story.
“Jefferson,” the bald eagle, is always a big hit with visitors because being so close to him and seeing his size and stature is truly an experience to remember.
“Dopey,” the screech owl, is also very popular because people are always shocked to see how small he is. “No one knows that owls can be so small, and it’s hard not to just completely fall in love with him,” Bradfield said.
The wildlife walk does have one non-native wildlife ambassador, “Snow,” an arctic fox who was brought to BRWC in 2012 after being confiscated from a family who did not have the proper permits and were not providing her adequate care. Bradfield said Snow was young and malnourished when she came to BRWC, and although BRWC does not usually take in non-native species, “We couldn’t say no, obviously,” Bradfield said.
At the center of the wildlife walk, several turtles enjoy a pond habitat outfitted with all native plants, where they spend time swimming, sunning themselves among bees and butterflies and snacking on native fruits.
The wildlife walk took many years to plan and build because it, too, was also totally funded by donations. The walk is situated in a natural setting alongside the hospital and has been under construction for the last several years as the pathways, decks and enclosures were slowly built.
Bradfield explained that it wasn’t just the physical structure of the wildlife walk that had to be complete before opening to the public. BRWC also had to recruit and train volunteer docents to tell the wildlife ambassadors’ stories, talk about wildlife rehabilitation and answer questions to bring the walk to life.
With the sheer volume of wildlife patients at the hospital, plus 20 full-time resident wildlife ambassadors, BRWC is “really lucky to have very knowledgeable, dedicated rehab volunteers, administration, maintenance volunteers and volunteer docents,” Bradfield said.
“We’re only a staff of seven, so you can imagine how crucial those volunteers are,” Bradfield said.
Bradfield credits BRWC’s education manager, Jennifer Burghoffer with preparing volunteer docents to educate visitors about their animal ambassadors as well as their unique habitats.
“She did very in-depth training sessions with the volunteers. They left with homework. They did multiple dry runs of the wildlife walk experience before we opened to make sure that everyone was completely prepared. Our main thing here with education is to give accurate information. And I tell everybody, ‘If you don’t know the answer, it’s okay. But giving false information goes completely against what we’re doing here,’” Bradfield said.
The mission of the BRWC is to care for native wildlife by integrating veterinary medicine, rehabilitation, education and research. Bradfield said their ambassadors help achieve that mission because they “spark joy and fascination in people and encourage them to learn more about nature and wildlife.”
“What we wanted to create with the wildlife walk was a publicly accessible place for everyone to be able to see our native wildlife and learn more about them. It took a village, literally, to get the wildlife walk up and running. For it to have started years ago, and the grand opening finally happening this past spring, was a culmination of so many years of support and hard work. It’s really exciting that it’s open now for the public to visit,” Bradfield said.
The Wildlife Walk is free and open to visitors, but advance reservations are required. To reserve a tour slot or for more information, visit www.blueridgewildlifectr.org.
Reach Cher Muzyk at cmuzyk@gmail.com.
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