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Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center In Scottsdale Gets Influx Of Orphaned Animals

An influx of wild animals have arrived at the Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center in Scottsdale — and many of them are orphaned babies.

This time last year the center housed approximately 90 animals, and today they have close to 200. 

“Right now we have close to 40 baby raccoons that we're caring for. A couple dozen skunk babies, coyote babies, bobcat babies. So it's lots and lots of javelina, we probably have 20 javelina babies right now, all of which need intensive care, and we've got some bunnies and squirrels," said Linda Searles, executive director and founder of the center. 

The center rehabilitates many babies with “foster parents,” or an older member of the same species that cannot be reintroduced to the wild for medical reasons, and makes sure they are healthy before releasing them back into the wild.

Searles  says there are many reasons for the uptick.

“We think because of the amount of rain we had through the winter, we think that attributes to some of it and some of it’s the wildfire and also some of its development.” 

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Chloe Jones was an intern at KJZZ from 2018 to 2019.