Fellow Mortals--Compassion Changes Everything

Many of you have experienced  the despair that comes with seeing forests or fields that have existed for decades be destroyed in a matter of hours or days. Like me, I am sure you worry about the wild ones suddenly displaced, babies literally thrown from nests when a chainsaw tears into a tree or a bulldozer rips open a den. In a world where even humans are often powerless to make their voices heard, the wild ones are especially vulnerable, but they have been resilient, thus far.

The good news is that, despite habitat loss, emerging diseases, and other anthropogenic-linked change, like the “iron hand in the velvet glove," many wild populations remain strong, and this should give us hope.

When we admitted our first bald eagle in 2000, she was banded by Sergei Postupalsky, one of the wildlife biologists responsible for identifying DDT as the cause of population collapse in raptor species including bald eagle and osprey; today there are 14 active eagle nests in our county alone, and Wisconsin has the fourth highest bald eagle population in the nation.

The first white pelican we admitted in 1997 was an anomaly, yet they have now nested in Wisconsin for over 30 years and migrate through our area every spring, hundreds of them gracing nearby lakes for a few days on their journey north.

The wild ones are doing their best to adapt to habitat loss and change, but they still need our help. Wild populations will continue to move when they are pushed, expanding their ranges whenever possible, but there must be habitat suitable for the species to inhabit, which is why preservation of what remains is critical. This preservation is just as critical for humans, for what would the world be like without wild places and the company of our non-human fellow mortals.

In order to continue to help the wild ones who come to us for care and those we hope will never need us, we need suitable habitat for release, properties that allow wild populations to interact naturally, but which are protected from dangers related to human use, which is why we have started a sister organization called "Arthur's Woods."

Property gifted to us or funds used to purchase property for wildlife sanctuaries will never be hunted, never be developed, and will always be used for the benefit of any free-living wildlife who enters or who is released there after rehabilitation at Fellow Mortals. As of June 2026, three properties are in use for this purpose.

We have already admitted 1100 animals this spring and it is not even the end of June, but thanks to the support of our community, our Team Hope donors from GlobalGiving, and the gifts of property for release habitat, the individual wild ones admitted to our care will return to keep their populations strong.

If you are interested in learning more about donating property or funds to purchase property for habitat, please reach out so we can tell you more.

In the meantime, thank you for your part in making so many happy endings possible.

Links:

• http://The Case of the Thinning Eggshells - JSTOR Daily
• http://Bald Eagle Population By State: 2026 Statistics [Data]

After a busy year with 2000 injured and orphaned birds and mammals receiving care, we were more than ready for a quiet winter. From days where we struggled to keep up with returning calls and admitting new patients, a day where the phone doesn’t ring even once is a welcome relief, and allows our staff to spend time on the other work that goes into running a wildlife hospital: preparing annual reports, giving the hospital a deep clean, and generally getting ready for another season.

This winter has generally followed that pattern, but there have been some busier times among the quieter days.

The last patient of 2025 was a northern cardinal, and the first of 2026 was a male bald eagle. Just 10 days after the first eagle arrived, another male eagle joined the first – both suffering from chronic lead poisoning complicated by trauma. While lead shot is no longer legal for waterfowl hunting, it is still used for hunting deer. Eagles ingest lead shot when feeding on deer not found by hunters, and the toxic effects on the birds include lethargy, disorientation, and nausea. Waterfowl also get lead poisoning, but they ingest lead shot accidentally while feeding on pond weed and dabbling in mud in areas where historic lead shot remains in the bottom of shallow wetlands or ponds.

In December and January, we responded to dozens of citizens finding sick Canada geese exhibiting neurological disorders, but it was not due to lead poisoning, the birds were symptomatic for highly pathogenic avian influenza.

Unlike lead poisoning, which we can treat by removing lead from the gizzard through lavage, and with medicine that acts as a chelating agent to remove lead circulating in the bloodstream, there is no treatment for the devasting hpai virus. If we suspect a bird is sick with hpai, we provide supportive care in a quarantined environment; unfortunately, most symptomatic birds do not recover, and it was overall a heartbreaking few weeks.

Along with caring for the injured eagles and sick geese, we also admitted many injured opossum, squirrels, and songbirds – and just this past week, we were able to release some of our recovered patients when we had a break in the wintry weather.

Wildlife rehabilitation is a bittersweet endeavor, but no matter the outcome for an individual patient, we are grateful to be able to provide a soft place for a wild one to land when their life is tragically interrupted.

Thank you for supporting our work and choosing to make a difference for the wild ones, big or small, rare or common.