Alabama Wildlife Center

The Alabama Wildlife Center, located within Oak Mountain State Park, is the state's oldest and largest wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center, has care for over 50,000 animals. It was founded in 1977 by Anne G. Miller, who still serves as Executive Director.

Miller started the center while she was a keeper at the Birmingham Zoo. She cared for an injured red-shouldered hawk, sheltering it in her own Smyer Lake cottage and training it to hunt mice. At the time she was affiliated with the Wildlife Rescue Service which operated with grant money out of the Ruffner Mountain Nature Center.

In 1987 the wildlife center moved most of its operations to the former Foothills Restaurant in Oak Mountain State Park, an in-kind gift from the state. In addition to incubators, clinic rooms and enclosures, the center has educational displays, a gift shop, and meeting space for visiting groups. A 750-foot handicapped accessible Treetop Nature Trail begins at the center and permits views of non-releasable birds of prey in large natural habitat enclosures.

The center is operated by a network of hundreds of volunteers. The center is open daily for self-guided tours. Special programs include the "Juvenile Raptor Restoration Project", which helps reduce the need for rehabilitative services by helping adult raptors locate their displaced hatchlings. "Natchez" and "Coosa" are specially-trained "education birds" that accompany educators at programs with youth and civic groups.

The 2006 Rand McNally Road Atlas includes the Wildlife Center as one of its "Best of the Road" suggested side trips. The Wildlife Center is partnering with Oak Mountain, the Alabama Department of Conservation, Samford University and the Friends of Oak Mountain to create a new $1.5 million Oak Mountain Interpretive Center in furtherance of its educational and conservation mission.

References

• Bryan, Kelly (1981) Article from Leeds News. Photocopy provided by Alabama Wildlife Center.

External link

• Alabama Wildlife Center website