A busy hurricane season isn't just a threat to humans-lots of wild animals get injured too, and it's places like the Florida Wildlife Hospital that take on the challenging task of nursing them back to health.
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00:00Pelicans are just one of hundreds of species that can get blown off course
00:05when a hurricane hits their habitat. The Florida Wildlife Hospital in Palm Shores,
00:09Florida is one of a handful of hospitals in the state that is capable of handling
00:14a busy hurricane season after thousands of wild animals get injured after a
00:19storm. A lot of the seabirds get knocked around, they can't feed and they get
00:25exhausted. They lose weight. Unfortunately, the second baby squirrel
00:31season also coincides with the peak hurricane season. So a lot of nests get
00:37blown down. Nursing these young hurricane victims back to health is a
00:41nearly round the clock mission. The immediate goal is to get them out of
00:45human hands and back into the wild as soon as possible. This guy you see right
00:50here is called Lieutenant Dan. He's missing his front leg there, so he's a
00:54permanent resident. But these guys when they get impacted by a hurricane or a
00:57storm can take months and months to get back on their feet, especially if their
01:02shell is cracked. These two wild bobcats were orphaned earlier in the season.
01:06They require very little human interaction so they can be rehabilitated
01:11at the wildlife hospital with as little interruptions as possible. We were
01:15already way ahead of any other year and then with Hurricane Milton that came
01:20through, um, we just really went up in numbers and we are almost at 6700
01:28patients this year already. And most wildlife experts will tell you even
01:33these season hurricane survivors that weather storms every day are likely
01:37hurricane weary to and looking forward to blue skies ahead for Accuweather.
01:42I'm Leslie Hudson reporting.