MONROE COUNTY, Pa. — It's a busy time of year at the Wilderz at Pocono Wildlife near Stroudsburg. Volunteers are bottle-feeding baby rabbits and raccoons while also handling emergency calls.
But recently, while updating permits through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, co-executive director Janine Tancredi says the center received new regulations about living arrangements for their nine educational ambassador birds.
"When we went to get the permitting changed, they told us that some of our enclosures for the ambassadors were not up to minimum standards," Tancredi said. "We have 45 days to establish new caging for those birds."
Staff members say the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved the size of the enclosures years ago. Now, the clock is ticking to move the birds into a new enclosure.
Workers are already expanding some of their enclosures, but this latest project will cost them about $25,000.
"There's construction, there's materials, there's labor. Luckily, we have someone on staff who is willing to do things at cost, but still, materials are expensive. There's very specific fencing that goes into it because it needs to be safe for the birds," Tancredi said.
Frank Menyhart, the center's property manager, has already drawn up blueprint designs for the 40-by-16-foot enclosure.
"It's almost like building a home, but we don't need a foundation in that sense. But it requires a crew to build it by appropriate measures and things," Menyhart said.
Staff members say these birds play an important role in educating the community.
"We have a relatively urban group of people living in the Poconos and we want to get them excited and on board with learning about wildlife and learning to live with wildlife," said Kathy Uhler. "These birds are super important to us."