News

Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center Rehabilitates Animals, Returns Them To Wild

KJZZ | By Tom Maxedon

Published November 29, 2020 at 1:54 PM MST

This badger was recently released back into the wild in an SRP-managed habitat. The animal and others was rehabilitated by Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center.

Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center and Salt River Project teamed up to release rehabilitated animals back into the wild.

They include coyotes, foxes, raccoons and even a badger.

“Badgers? Badgers? We don’t need no stinking badgers,” said late actor Trinidad Silva in the 1989 popular B-film “UHF,” which starred "Weird Al" Yankovic.

These foxes were recently released back into the wild in an SRP-managed habitat. They were rehabilitated by Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center.

Silva played a cable-access TV show host of “Raul’s Wild Kingdom” and was accepting a delivery of wild animals for an episode of his show.

The line is a spoof take from another film, “Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” starring Humphrey Bogart over 40 years prior.

But it’s probably how a Mesa resident felt when it was found in a garage.

Recently the badger was released back into the wild, along with juvenile foxes, raccoons and coyotes which, “were orphaned as babies or once living in urban areas” and were rehabilitated by Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center” according to SRP.

The animals have been reintroduced to the wild in SRP-managed habitats, mainly northeast and southeast of the Valley.