Biscayne National Park Formalizes Partnership with Wildlife Rescue of Dade County

Date: March 16, 2015
Contact: Vanessa McDonough, 305-230-1144 x027

HOMESTEAD, FLORIDA –Biscayne National Park recently entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with local wildlife rehabilitation organization Wildlife Rescue of Dade County (WRDC). This partnership will allow WRDC to assist park staff in responding to wildlife injuries and strandings in the park, particularly when threatened or endangered species are involved or when any animal becomes ill or injured as a result of human actions. Park managers may not have the training, resources or facilities to conduct rescue and rehabilitation operations, so the assistance of WRDC is crucial to providing timely and appropriate responses to the wildlife strandings in the park.

WRDC is a non-profit, fully licensed organization that rescues, rehabilitates and releases back into the wild the injured, orphaned and/or displaced wild animals, particularly birds and mammals, native to South Florida. This recent MOU is now being used as a model for the park to pursue similar partnerships with other rescue organizations that specialize in sea turtles, sea birds and marine mammals.

While Biscayne National Park's general policy is to not interfere with natural wildlife injuries or illnesses, the park encourages visitors to report their observations of injured or ill wildlife so that park staff or WRDC representatives can determine the appropriate response.

To report observations of injured or ill wildlife or for more information on the talk or the exhibit, contact Vanessa McDonough at 305-230-1144, x027 or WRDC at 305-342-1075. For more information about Biscayne National Park, please visit the park website at www.nps.gov/bisc, or follow the park on Facebook at www.facebook.com/biscaynenps or Twitter at www.twitter.com/biscaynenps.

-BISC-

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