The price of caring for orphaned and injured wildlife has gone up at the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society.
Beki Hunt, executive director for the non-profit, says it now costs about $11,000 a month to provide nutrients and species-appropriate food to the patients.
"I looked back and it was around $7,000 for the month of July in 2022," Hunt said.
"It's definitely an increase. I mean, this is our busiest time, so we are spending the most amount of money this time of year on patient costs."
Staff at the shelter are caring for five times the number of patients in the summer than in the off-season.
Hunt says that's an average of 280 animals per month, compared to 53 per month.
"Last I checked, we were pushing around 1,600 patients that have come through our doors this year," she said.
"We've had a lot of raptors, a lot of owls. We've had some ferruginous hawks, which are an endangered species. We had a blue heron that successfully was released, which is great, and just the usual urban wildlife, so crows and skunks, foxes -- things like that."
Breanne Marois, a wildlife rehabilitator was checking a snake's stitches on Monday after it was hit with a weed whacker.
It's close to two metres long and will feed on mice while it's healing.
Marois says mealworms are a favourite of a number of species and some birds will go through dozens during one of six daily meals.
"Mealworms are an excellent protein source as they are readily available," Marois said.
"They're something that we can use to make up the majority of the diet for any of those insectivores or those that require more of a high-protein diet here in captivity."
Hunt says inflation is the driving factor behind the higher food costs the shelter is forced to deal with.
"One mouse is about $1.40," she said.
"Which seems like not very much but we feed a lot of mice to our hawks and our birds of prey. One mealworm is about 10 cents but we go through tens of thousands a month. A big one is produce. So fresh produce blueberries, we used to be able to buy a quart for about $3.50 and they're pushing $7 now."
Hunt says the facility receives some grant money but the increased food costs are taking up any extra funds she has to build new enclosures or upgrade existing ones.
"The majority of our funding comes from one-off donations or monthly donations," she said.
"Regular folks who care greatly about wildlife."
The Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society is a registered charitable organization that was established in 1993 and provides expert compassionate care to injured and orphaned wildlife in and around the City of Calgary 365 days a year.
More information about it can be found at calgarywildlife.org.
