Visitors get inside view at Northern California wild animal hospital

You generally don’t want to visit a hospital when you’re on vacation, but this one is worth an exception.

The Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek, Calif., houses a wildlife rehabilitation hospital that performs X-rays, lab work, stitches, medications, whatever is needed to treat a wide range of injured and sick animals. Hummingbirds, foxes, raccoons, snakes, hawks, coyotes and even lizards are among the patients, a museum statement says.

Now summer visitors will be able to see the hospital in action at the museum’s Behind the Scenes exhibit space. Guests watch through a glass wall viewing area and listen to staff members describe what’s happening in real-time.

It’s good for aspiring veterinarians, children and anyone who loves wild animals and wants to know more about their care. “It’s very appropriate for kids as they don’t feature anything too gruesome in these presentations,” spokeswoman Trisha Clayton writes via email.

Almost all the animals brought to the hospital are sick or have been injured because of human interaction, the museum says. It treats more than 5,000 injured and orphaned wild animals every year (2,000 recovered and were released in 2013) and currently houses 1,000 animals.

There are other things to see at the museum too, like a mock-up of an underground squirrel burrow that kids can explore, a working honey bee hive and Lord Richard the Turkey Vulture (a female) who’s having a birthday party this weekend to mark her 40th year.

The exhibition space will be open 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays until Labor Day. It’s included in the cost of admission: $8.50 for adults, $7.50 for children 2 to 17 years old.

Info: Lindsay Wildlife Museum, (925) 627-2913