VPM Digital

Being outdoors was always part of Josh Sloan’s life, growing up climbing, hiking, biking and paddling. He uses a wheelchair for mobility due to a 2014 spinal cord injury and remains an avid kayaker.

Working to protect natural habitats is a noble pursuit for people who love animals, but the benefits go far beyond wildlife. The natural world also does wonders for the minds and spirits of its human visitors.

A wildlife biologist studies animals and their environments. They can work in lots of different settings: in a lab, an office, or maybe out in nature for a close look at their subject.

Every so often, an outbreak of human disease dominates the headlines. Before COVID-19, smaller outbreaks of ebola, West Nile virus and swine flu all spent plenty of time in the news. Many of these have clear connections to wildlife: 75 percent of newly emerging diseases in human beings are zoonotic, meaning they can be transmitted between humans and animals.

The hard work of wildlife conservation can happen in many settings. Sometimes it’s at the roadside, carefully collecting an injured animal. Or it might be in a veterinary hospital, cleaning wounds, X-raying wings or performing delicate surgeries.

The goal of wildlife rehabilitation is to release healthy, recovered animals back to their natural habitats as fully functioning wild animals. But what happens when animals can’t be released? Sometimes, they may be suitable for a new job: an education ambassador at the Wildlife Center of Virginia.

In wildlife rehabilitation, the goal is always to return a healthy animal to its natural habitat. Each species has very specific requirements for survival, and its natural habitat is one that offers the food, water, shelter and landscape it needs.

If you find a wild animal that seems sick, injured or orphaned, your first step is to determine whether you should intervene. An adult animal may feel threatened and become dangerously aggressive. A baby deer that looks abandoned might have a mother around the corner, and a juvenile squirrel might be perfectly fine on its own.

Join us each week for UNTAMED as Ed Clark, the staff at the The Wildlife Center of Virginia and other wildlife conservation professionals discuss the issues facing wildlife and what we can do to make a difference. UNTAMED premieres Thursday, April 1 at 8:00 p.m. on VPM PBS.

Watch “Why This Moment” on VPM PBS Tuesday, November 17 at 10pm.