Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center brings back evacuated animals

Coastal Orange County residents took precautions Saturday before Tropical Storm Hilary rolled in, but they weren’t the only ones who were potentially in harm’s way.

The Huntington Beach-based nonprofit Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center sprung into action to protect creatures that couldn’t necessarily help themselves.

The center’s executive director, Debbie McGuire, said about 1,000 animals were temporarily relocated due to concerns that Hilary would bring flooding and other damage.

After the storm passed through Sunday night, McGuire and her staff began the task of getting those animals back to the center.

Volunteer Preeti Patel, far right, returns nearly 300 ducks back to their pool on Tuesday after they were evacuated to the Santa Ana Zoo.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

The Santa Ana Zoo had agreed to take in about 30 raccoons and 300 ducks, including more than 80 ducklings.

The raccoons were retrieved from the zoo Monday, followed by the ducks on Tuesday morning.

To accomplish the task, McGuire rented a U-Haul van. Then, with the help of another van, crates of ducks were transported back to the care center on Pacific Coast Highway.

“I think we got very fortunate that we didn’t have a direct hit [from the storm],” McGuire said, adding that there was minor damage to the center, including an outside triage tent that came apart and an outside flight cage that was damaged. “[The storm] changed a little bit and went a little bit more east. But at the time, we had to make the decision [to evacuate the center] because it takes so long to make an effort like that. We had to make it then, so we did.”

The Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center also partnered with the International Bird Rescue in San Pedro, which took in all of the seabirds and medical cases. The California Wildlife Center in Calabasas took some of the song birds, mourning doves and all of the raptors.

Volunteer Sue Hennings carries a few ducks back to their pool at the Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach on Tuesday.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

A wildlife center up in Santa Barbara took 30 ducks, four geese and four raccoons, McGuire said.

“All of these organizations came through big time in our time of need,” she said, adding that all of the animals were expected to be back in Huntington Beach by Wednesday.

Additionally, those birds that could fly were released on Saturday morning ahead of the storm, after talking to wildlife veterinarians and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

“They felt that was the best chance for those birds,” McGuire said. “They feel the barometric change, and they know to leave. A lot of ducks went, gulls, pelicans, egrets, herons.”

McGuire said that some birds and other animals like opossums, which had to be fed every 30 minutes, went home with volunteers over the weekend for care.

About 300 ducks were relocated from Huntington Beach to the Santa Ana Zoo ahead of Tropical Storm Hilary over the weekend.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Santa Ana Zoo manager Ethan Fisher said the zoo has helped with evacuations several times in recent years, including three Orange County Zoo evacuations due to wildfires.

“We’re getting a little bit better at this than we would like,” Fisher said. “We work together. We’re operated by the city of Santa Ana, and even our parks director was here on Saturday and brought in some help from parks and recreation with a van. It was just such a time crunch to get them out of there, so whatever resources we could bring to help out the situation, we wanted to be supportive.”