Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Our good friend Zach Mertz is joining us once again from the New England Wildlife center in Weymouth and on Cape Cod. Chat with us about how things are going and a special event that's coming up very, very soon. Hey, Zach, how are you?
[00:00:12] Speaker B: Hey, thanks for having me back.
[00:00:14] Speaker A: It's our pleasure. Happy to talk to you and promote the center. It does great work for a lot of animals and a lot of people too. So we're happy to do it. Last time we chatted, actually it was the night of a Thousand Faces. Your pumpkin festival.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, we're. Thank you for helping out and we had an awesome response. I think we had like 3,000, maybe a little over people join us and man, I can't believe we're headlong into the holidays already. That happened quick.
[00:00:41] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. It does seem to be. Every year goes quicker and quicker for sure.
As I always like to start out. Just if you could, just a brief overview of what the New England Wildlife center is.
[00:00:52] Speaker B: Sure, yeah. The New England Wildlife center is a 40 year old nonprofit located in Weymouth and in Barnesville, Massachusetts. We're local folks who promote education about wildlife and the environment. And we provide free veterinary care to about 5,000 sick, injured and orphaned wild animals. And we use that to teach. So every patient exam, every time we get an animal in crisis that comes in, we like to share it with folks either in person or in social media and, you know, sort of use that animal struggles as a way of telling folks about the challenges wildlife face and, and hopefully change some minds and change the behavior so folks make better choices in their own yards to help wildlife conserve.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. You are a nonprofit organization, right?
[00:01:33] Speaker B: Yes, sir, we are a nonprofit. Totally donation funded.
And this has been, you know, I think for all nonprofits, been a pretty difficult financial year. We're no exception.
So we're really proud to keep doing the work we're doing.
But as things change around us in the community, we're. We're really looking for support to keep up the good work.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: Sure. That leads us to your next event. Right. That's coming up this weekend. What's going on?
[00:01:59] Speaker B: Yes. Super excited about this one. It is our annual holiday open house at our Cape location, so about, you know, 45 minutes from Quincy.
Everyone is invited. And what this is, is once a year we open up our Cape Hospital, the Birds of Cape Wildlife center to the public. And we do it in a big way. So it's not just like you can walk through and get a tour. You can, but. But we're also going to be joined by Santa and our educational owl, Loki. There's a bake sale, there's a silent auction. We have live animal shows from amazing animal ambassadors. We have a huge taxidermy collection from the town of Barnstable. There are food activities, book readings. It's fun for the entire family. It changes every year. And this year we really pulled out all the stops. So it's going to be, going to be an awesome day.
Five bucks for individuals. You know, kids that can't walk yet are, are free.
And yeah, really looking forward to it.
[00:02:56] Speaker A: So exactly where is the Cape center located and what are the hours for the event?
[00:03:02] Speaker B: So we are located right on 6A. 4011 Main street is the address technically, and it's going to be running from 12 to 4pm okay, very good.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: And do you know about how many years this has been going on, Zach?
[00:03:15] Speaker B: This will be our fourth year and we've been slowly growing and getting bigger. I think we had about 700 folks last year. And I think I heard Karen, one of our volunteers and now employee who helps run the event, she says every year this is my last year doing it because it keeps growing.
And when I tell you, she's in the other room putting up Christmas trees and lights and it will be the best year ever. And Karen will definitely be back next year. I'm pretty confident of that.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: It's getting to be a standard for her to say it, right?
[00:03:49] Speaker B: Exactly. Exactly. That's how we know the holidays are here.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: Exactly. Yeah. That sounds like a lot of fun. So now, do the funds raised for this event go to any, any particular organization within this, the center?
[00:04:01] Speaker B: Yeah. So the funds raised at this event are general operating. The funding we need the most, you know, keeps the lights on. It buys the medications the animals need. It buys all the specialty food, the fish, the mice, the lettuce, the vegetables that the animals eat.
So by coming you can learn about it, have a fun afternoon. But you're also helping support local wildlife.
[00:04:21] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Now, you mentioned silent auction. Can talk about some of the items perhaps?
[00:04:27] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Really excited about the silent auction this year too. It's thanks to a lot of our community volunteers. It's been growing and so this year I know we have a ton of amazing restaurant gift cards and gift certificates anywhere from Boston, all the way through the Cape. We have a cruise either to the Caribbean, to the Caribbean or to Mexico.
There are a lot of local artists and Our medical director, Dr. Patel, hand carved and wood burned some incredible owl boxes which we've Already had people try to pre order a few times. But if you're looking for a gift this season, give the gift of an owl. Because it's A, it's cool, but B, it's amazing rodent control.
And C, once you get an owl, you really start to balance your backyard. So it's a really, really cool gift that keeps on giving and you can do it in style this year with these, these wood. Wood burned boxes.
[00:05:18] Speaker A: Oh, very good. So talk about a unique gift. That's really interesting. Yeah. Okay. I remember a few years ago, we had an owl in our backyard. And in the dead of summer, in the middle of the night, to hear an owl, you know, making their hoofs, hooting noises is really something special.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: It is. It isn't. I gotta tell you, this is the time of year they're starting to pair up for the mating season and eventually chickering season. And so right around the end of December, if you're an owl lover or you're someone who's looking to hear or see an owl for the first time, this is your time of year you want to go out. Even though it's a little chilly. You can take the family out or go on one of the local owl prowls, as they call them.
And it's sort of the best year to, to the best time of year to sort of understand and hear all the different species we have.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: Yeah. So tell me a little bit about the. I know kids love to see animal presentations. Can you give us any particulars about what folks will see on Saturday?
[00:06:13] Speaker B: Absolutely. So our educational owls will be out in full force. So we have Thor, who is a great horned owl. He's a big fella. Loki is probably the most famous one down here. She, she's been with us for six years now. Um, she's the one eyed little screech owl and she's amazing. She's just really charismatic and she's excited to see everybody. And then this year we have a new addition. His name is Gooby. He is a barn owl, which are usually pretty rare in Massachusetts. We had rescued him last year. He was in a horse barn. He got stepped on by a horse, broke his leg. And our vet team did surgery to repair his leg.
It healed. He's doing well. He healed crooked. And so after a lot of back and forth and trying to figure out the best thing, it became clear that he could live a good life, but probably wouldn't survive in the wild. So we've kept him, but this will sort of be his big debut. At the holiday open house. So if you're a fan, you can meet him for the first time. And then amazing animal ambassadors will be on site, too, for show at 2 o'. Clock. And they have probably 40 different species, everything from skunks and opossums to, I think, raven owls, you name it, they. They always bring the crowd with them.
[00:07:24] Speaker A: Oh, okay. So 2:00pm for that. That's good to know.
So the event runs from noon to 4. Is it. I mean, do you have to be there for the whole four hours, Zach? Or, you know, how does it actually work?
[00:07:33] Speaker B: No, this is a free explore event. You can come in, see, see things, enjoy. Well, I should say we'll have a campfire and s' mores station going all day, too, with some book reading for the kids. So you can pop in as you like, stay as long as you want, and enjoy.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: Okay, great. And logistically, in terms of how folks park and accessing the center, how does that all work?
[00:07:53] Speaker B: Yeah, so if you have longer driveway, 4011 Main Street. In Barnstable, you can pull right in. We'll have some folks helping people park right on site. A short walk. We'll have a few handicapped spots available for anyone who needs them.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: Okay, very good. And it says center is handicapped accessible.
[00:08:08] Speaker B: Yes. Yep.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: Excellent. Okay.
Anything else we should let folks know about right now?
[00:08:15] Speaker B: You know, we have. I will share. We've been getting a lot of requests for a recent story that was pretty interesting for us, which is Charles the alligator. And he was from. Well, he was found in the Charles River. It was an interesting story, and I just figured I'd share just because. Because I would say daily I probably get 10 people asking me how Charles is doing.
The short version of his backstory was a lady was walking to work, and she was downtown walking along the Charles river like she did every morning. I think she was a research assistant going to her lab, and she thought she saw an alligator in the Charles. And, you know, being the same person, I think she was kind of like, well, that can't be. I must have seen it. She doubled back, and she was right. It was an alligator.
And so we don't know what happened, but our best guess is somebody probably had it as a pet or took it from down south, realized maybe keeping an alligator in their apartment wasn't the best choice, and they released it into the river.
And so luckily, it wasn't a huge alligator, Was, you know, two years old, maybe a foot long.
And so he was found by a gentleman named Joe Kenney of Joe's Crazy Critters over in Abington.
The problem was it had gotten so cold out that the alligator contracted a cold or respiratory infection and so he brought him to us for vet care. Our vet team looked him over. Charles is doing awesome right now. He's, he's about three weeks into his four week treatment, so everything's looking good. He's breathing well. And all signs point of him getting healthy and he'll stay with Joe Kenny of Joe's Crazy Critters for the foreseeable future.
And eventually, you know, maybe if he gets to be a 2, 300 pound alligator, which could happen, he may find a permanent home in a, in a sanctuary. But for the moment, he's living a good, good life and will be kept as an educational animal.
[00:10:06] Speaker A: Wow. All right. A New England alligator.
Not, not native to this, this area. Right. Where are they native to?
[00:10:15] Speaker B: Yeah, these guys definitely don't come this far north as evidenced by our, you know, our cold weather about this week.
You know, they'll come maybe as far north as like the Carolinas. He's an American alligator, so, you know, you think Florida, this is exactly the type you'd be seeing down there.
And yeah, they, they can handle a little bit of cold weather, a snap here or two, but you get them consistent, few months of temps under, you know, 50 degrees and they get into trouble.
So this poor guy is going to need some heat support and lucky to be living inside now.
And one, one thing we always like to say because while we don't get a lot of alligators, we do get a lot of pet turtles that are released or pet snakes that are released. You know, reptiles live a long time and they make great pets. But if you're going to make that commitment, you got to think, you know, do I still want a turtle in 10 years? Do my kids want a turtle? Do my grandkids want a turtle? Some of them can live, you know, to 100 years old. And so if you're going to take on the responsibility of pet, just make sure it's something you can take on for the long haul and, you know, in some cases have, you know, plans if you pass away for, you know, where that turtle can go and who can take care of them.
[00:11:24] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, we see the, the cold stunning of the, the sea turtles every fall down on the Cape. So it, they cannot handle our weather in the winter, you know.
[00:11:34] Speaker B: Yeah, yep, exactly. It's a hard, hard life as a reptile.
[00:11:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of native animals, Zach, what, what concerns going into the winter? Do you have at the wildlife center.
[00:11:48] Speaker B: Yeah. So cut. We're in storm season now, so anytime we start to see nor' Easters or even strong coastal winds, we batten down the hatches here. We get all of our seabird cages ready.
Just. Just knowing that you're going to get these migrating birds that are coming down from the Arctic and points north, coming to their summer destination, which is kind of crazy to think about people coming to New England for the winter, but they do.
And they're rafting in huge groups. You think of, like, dove keys or gannets. There can be groups of over a thousand birds in one area, and you get hit by these strong winds and currents, and they can all get pushed up on the beach at once.
So we're always on the lookout and we're always asking folks, hey, you know, if there's a storm and you're. You're brave, if you want to go walk the beaches in Quincy or you want to walk the beaches in Hull or any of our coastal towns, keep an eye out for seabirds, because if you can get them quickly, they do much better.
And then the other winter holiday story we get, which is a little. A little silly, but we see it every year, is we're in owl season, and this time of year, invariably, we always get an owl or two that comes down a chimney or sneaks into someone's house, a bit like Santa, but generally with different motives. And so what happens is you get these, say, screech owls. We have one in the hospital right now. Was probably looking for a warm place to maybe think about start building a nest.
Ended up in a person's house. We don't know if it was through the front door or down the chimney, but it was, based on its body condition, was skinnier. It was likely there for several days before the family even realized it was there. And apparently this lady had walked into her bathroom one evening, and she looked it up under her shower curtain rod, and there was an eastern screech owl staring back at her. And so as she, you know, she handled it very well, we got the call. We were able to get the. The owl into care. He. He's. He's doing, all things considered, really well, but this is a good time. If you have owls and you love owls, one of the best things you can do is put a chimney cap on your chimney.
They only cost about 15 bucks, and it will stop all manner of animals from coming down there. I think Santa can still get through the chimney cap, but the raccoons and the owls can't okay.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: Wow. That must have been quite a startling episode for that lady.
[00:14:05] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Hats off to her, though. She. She did really well with it. And.
And call us right away, which is all we can ask.
[00:14:11] Speaker A: Yeah, that's great. Excellent. So to that point, then, if folks do have animals that they see in distress, give you a call.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: Yes. Yep. We're open seven days a week.
Easiest number is 508-362-0111 is a wildlife line. And if you get an animal in distress, if you have a question about an animal's behavior you're seeing, anything you need, you're welcome to give us a call. We'd love to try and help.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: Okay, great.
But again, for the short term, it's your winter wildlife open house, right? This Saturday?
[00:14:42] Speaker B: Yes. Yep. Saturday the 6th. 12 to 4 at the Cape location, which is 4011 Main street in Barnstable.
[00:14:48] Speaker A: Excellent. All right. And online as well, Zach.
[00:14:52] Speaker B: Yes. And we are doing any year push this time of year. You can find us on Facebook, a ton of live videos and new content. You can find info about the event, and of course, you'll see updates on Charles the Owl and all of the other patients are treating.
[00:15:06] Speaker A: Okay. Do you have volunteer opportunities there at the centers?
[00:15:10] Speaker B: We do. We do once a week. I mean, sorry, once a month on Tuesday afternoons in Weymouth, it's open volunteer day. So we have a different project every month. People are invited to come in, help us out. Whether it's feeding animals or building a cage or helping clean up or whatever it is.
You can go to anywildlife.org, our website. You can sign up to be on the mailing list and you'll hear about all the opportunities.
[00:15:31] Speaker A: Okay, great. And you work with, I know you work with schools throughout the region, right?
[00:15:36] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. This has been really proud. This is our busiest education year ever. We're, I think probably 100 classes in school we've done. Some of those are five session programs, some of those are one offs. But the team's been really busy. And I should say, too, if you're a teacher or you have a kid and you know, K through 12 school that you're interested in the program, please reach out. We're always looking to get into new districts, and we love teaching adults. But. But come on, you know, if you're gonna, if you're gonna change your mind or inspire someone to be a conservationist when they're in middle school or younger, that's the time. I know. That's when I, I got hooked in many of the folks that work here, you know, someone came into their classroom with an animal at one point, and that was it. It was all over for us, and we knew it was gonna be a lifelong thing. So that's. That's what we're trying to do.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: Sure, sure. And of course, the best way to teach adults is to teach their kids.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: That's exactly right. That's exactly right.
[00:16:27] Speaker A: You'll be open up soon. You know, the holiday vacation time is coming up soon, so I'm sure you'll be open during the vacation weeks as well.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah. Keep an eye on our social media, which is just doing the wildlife centers on all platforms. We'll be announcing all of the holiday break events that we have going on. A bunch of free programs if you're looking to, you know, spend some time with the kids, grandkids, friends, an awesome opportunity to come in and, you know, sort of bond over protecting the natural world.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: Great, great. Thanks so much, Zach. Great to talk to you. Always good to catch up.
[00:16:57] Speaker B: Thank you so much. Happy holidays.
[00:16:59] Speaker A: Same to you. Bye.
[00:17:00] Speaker B: Bye.
