UC Davis veterinarian Dr . Jamie Peyton , lower right , along with colleagues from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife , examine a mountain lion who was burned in the 2020 Bobcat wildfire in the Angeles National Forest . PHOTO BY KIRSTEN MACINTYRE , CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE ; COURTESY OF UC DAVIS
the collagen ,” Johnson says . Lucy and Ethel were walking on their elbows when they came in . After the tilapia treatment , they walked with their feet on the ground .
More burned animals each year
As more burned animals came in , Johnson and Peyton realized they needed a network of volunteers to treat them . In October 2020 , the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine , in partnership with the DFW , formed the Wildlife Disaster Network , composed of veterinarians , wildlife biologists , ecologists and trained animal care volunteers . They dedicated themselves to treating larger animals impacted by wildfires — bears , mountain lions , bobcats and deer . The network employs a five-pronged approach to their work with animals : reconnaissance , rescue , rehabilitation , release and research .
“ Every year our number of cases we have managed and have been requested to work on and been contacted on has gone up ,” Johnson says .
Peter Tira , spokesperson for the Department of Fish and Wildlife , says his agency also takes in burned , injured or orphaned animals . “ This has been one of our busiest years in terms of animals that have come through ,” Tira says of 2021 . “ We had a lot of orphaned bears as a result of vehicle strikes . Cars hit their mothers . We think the bears are moving because the fires burned areas and they are moving to new habitat .”
Johnson says the number of burned animals statewide treated by the Wildlife Disaster Network went up from 20 cases in 2020 to 30 cases in 2021 . Gold Country Wildlife Rescue cared for 5,000 injured animals in 2021 , including 30 animals burned in California ’ s wildfires .
The Wildlife Disaster Network was modeled after the UC Davis-led Oiled
Wildlife Care Network , which was formed in 1994 . OWCN , a network of trained wildlife care experts , works to rescue and rehabilitate oiled wildlife in California . OWCN was influenced by the disastrous 1989 spill of the oil tanker Exxon Valdez in Alaska that dumped 11 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound , killing more than 250,000 seabirds , including 250 bald eagles . Volunteers treated surviving birds by washing them in dishwashing liquid .
The main rehab facility burned animals are taken to is Gold Country Wildlife Rescue , which received a license from DFW in 2021 to care for large animals such as bears . At the end of 2021 , there were six bears at the Auburn facility .
One of those was a bear cub named Peyton , named after Jamie Peyton . DFW biologists spotted her in a tree with her eyes swollen shut due to fire , smoke and ash exposure from the 2021 Fawn Fire
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