Rick Schubert's presentation at the Franklin Institute

The Franklin Institute is hosting Earth Fair 2009 | One Planet Is All We Get! - this weekend. As part of its exploration of how to live more sustainably on our planet, they invited our very own Rick Schubert - Rescuer Extraordinaire of Miss Piggy - and just as importantly, the chief wildlife rehabilitator at the Schuylkill Wildlife Center.

Rick brought several animals to demonstrate the work of wildlife rehabilitation. Here he is holding Freya, a female red-tailed hawk, who was shot through her left wing and can no longer fly safely enough to be released back into the wild.

The bullet passed through her wing and remains in her body lodged too close to her spine to be removed. You can see how her left wing droops a little.

Kay Meng took all these great pictures



Rick commented that Freya was on the small side for a female red-tail, and she did seem slighter in build than the Franklin eyasses and formel. Freya is used as a surrogate hawk when baby hawks are rescued and need to imprint on a red-tail.




Miss Piggy did not meet Freya during her two day stay at the Center because she was old enough to be on her own. Miss P was kept in a special enclosure that was "blacked-out" so she could not see humans, and Rick told us that because she was a bit underweight, she did nothing but eat while there, completely living up to her name!




Here is Sneakers, a possum who lives permanently at the Wildlife Center. Rick told us that Sneakers was originally kept as a pet and fed only on chicken and cantaloupe - a terrible diet for a possum as it contains no calcium. As a result, Sneakers developed metabolic bone disease (rickets). When Sneakers' owner realized something was seriously wrong, he brought him to the Wildlife Center where he will remain as he is too disabled by the effects of the disease to be returned to the wild.

We learned that possums are the only marsupials to live in the USA, and because they raise their young in the mother's pouch, don't need to build nests, and are therefore nomadic in their lifestyle. Possums are completely non-aggressive and when threatened, literally pass out from stress, originating the term, "playing possum."




Another animal that Rick brought was Smashy, the box turtle. He was run over by a car which crushed his shell, hence his name. His shell is almost completely healed now, with just one small crack remaining to heal over. Conventional wisdom is that turtles eat lettuce and fruit, but in fact they are far more carnivorous than most people realize. Smashy enjoys worms, dog food and mice!

Rick told us that most of the red-tailed hawks that are rescued and come to him for rehabilitation are young eyasses who have not yet fully learned of the dangers of highways, cars, power lines, and other elements of human interference in their natural habitat. He believes that as they mature, they become more savvy to the dangers around them and adapt accordingly.

Red-tailed hawks are at the top of the food chain, and one of the factors that keeps them there is their incredible telescopic eyesight. Its power is such that if a newspaper were pinned to a football goal post, a hawk could read it from the other end of the field! Another interesting fact we learned is that crows predate on hawk eggs and nestlings, and so it is theorized that female hawks are larger than males as they spend more time on the nest and potentially need to defend it and its helpless inhabitants.

So, if you live near Philadelphia and wish you could have heard Rick speak today, you have a second chance tomorrow (Sunday) as he is giving his presentation again at 1:00 pm in the Musser Theater on the 3rd floor.