He was found as a baby, frozen to a Bloomington sidewalk. An elderly couple scooped him up, thawed him by the fire and started searching for a place that would take him in.
Most of the organizations they called said they could exterminate groundhogs, but not raise them. Then they found Wildcare Inc.
Wildcare is a Bloomington nonprofit dedicated to rehabilitating injured or orphaned wildlife in Monroe County. Since it was incorporated in 2001, the center has taken in more than 16,000 animals, according to its website.
Whenever possible, the center staff and volunteers raise the animals so they are able to safely return them to their natural habitat. Sometimes though, like in Winston’s case, the animals are either too accustomed to human care or too severely injured to be rehabilitated. That is when the center uses the creatures to educate children about the environment in Monroe County.
“Winston is the star of our organization,” Jack Yonkman, the center’s director, said of the stout, buck-toothed, peanut-loving creature. “He’s a crowd-pleaser, and the children love him.”
Another member of the Wildcare team is Artemis the crow, who can identify numbers and colors and fold dollars before placing them into the donation bucket.
“I think that seeing the show gives children an appreciation of the wildlife here in Indiana,” Yonkman said. “The more appreciation we can instill at this young age, the more we create adults who care about the environment and want to live their lives in sustainable ways.”
Spring and summer, or baby season, is the busiest time of the year at Wildcare. The staff and interns are currently rehabilitating two bobcats, 15 raccoons, nine opossums, multiple flocks of geese and ducks, baby rabbits and many songbirds.
The staff says it’s not always an easy job. Baby birds need to be fed every 15 minutes and the center requires frequent cleaning and multiple loads of laundry each day.
“I’m a huge animal-lover,” said Lauren Luegers, a Wildcare intern. “Being able to walk up to a groundhog and feed him a peanut is so amazing to me. It’s just unreal.”
Once the summer interns leave in August, Yonkman said Wildcare will need a new group of dedicated volunteers to spend three- to four-hour shifts interacting with the wildlife, cleaning the center and running tables at events each week.
“My favorite part of my job is watching our volunteers dedicate themselves to these animals that no one else pays much attention to,” Yonkman said. “What people do out of love for animals is incredible. Almost all of our volunteers have full-time jobs and still come here and spend hours taking care of the animals.”
