About the Wildlife Hospital
The Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife (CROW) hospital is a fully equipped 4,800-square-foot state-of-the-art facility designed to care for sick, injured, and orphaned wildlife. Within the hospital, our team of staff, students, and volunteers provide medical treatment and rehabilitative care to ensure our wild patients’ recovery and successful release back to the wild.
Wildlife patients are admitted on the upper level of the hospital and examined by our veterinary team. While receiving treatment, they are housed in our intensive care unit or critical care wards. The upper level also includes our admissions center, a surgical suite for orthopedic and soft tissue procedures (including endoscopy), a diagnostics lab and radiology center, as well as a neonatal care unit for baby birds and squirrels. The base level of the hospital includes our patient commissary (diet preparation area), separate neonatal care units for opossums and for raccoons, a multi-purpose room for patients with special needs, a climate-controlled reptile recovery room, and an isolation ward. Upon completion of all medical treatments, our patients transition to rehabilitative care in one of our 17 outdoor enclosures as they take the next steps towards full recovery and release.
CROW is the only licensed sea turtle rehabilitation center in Southwest Florida between Sarasota and the Florida Keys! Our new, state-of-the-art rehabilitation facility is expected to start seeing patients in late 2026.
In addition to treating wildlife patients that come through our doors, another part of CROW’s mission is educating the next generation of wildlife health and conservation professionals. Our student program attracts students from universities across the globe. During their time at CROW, students learn all aspects of wildlife and conservation medicine including emergency triage and stabilization, intensive care, physical therapy, anesthesia and surgery, rehabilitation techniques including neonatal orphan care, and participate in current conservation-based research projects. They have the unique opportunity to work with over 200 species of native and migratory wildlife in southwest Florida.
In 2024, CROW hosted 31 students! We had 15 Veterinary Medical Students representing 13 veterinary schools, 7 undergraduate Wildlife Care Externship students, 1 Veterinary Medical Intern, 6 six-month Wildlife Rehabilitation Internship students, and 2 Conservation Education and Marketing interns. Of these students, there were 18 states, and 6 countries represented (Britian, Mexico, Germany, Canada, Columbia, Netherlands). Additionally, we created a new 1-year Veterinary Fellowship program — the position was filled by a previous 1-year Veterinary Internship student, Dr. Kasey Mitchell.
Who are our patients and where do they come from?
