Liberty Wildlife

As one of the largest wildlife rehabilitation organizations in the United States, Liberty Wildlife cares for over 12,000 animals every year. In 2020 we cared for over 186 different native species, from Albert's squirrels to whiptail lizards, from bobcats to yellow warblers.

But we go well beyond care and rehabilitation of species. From our earliest days of operation, 40 years ago, Liberty Wildlife has strived to educate the public about the importance and role of wildlife in our lives and in our communities. Last year we offered over 800 educational programs to Kindergarten through 12th grade students and to the broader public during our open visitation hours, and through our community partners. Over the years we've presented our educational programs at the Verde Canyon Railroad, the Desert Botanical Garden and the Arizona Renaissance Festival, just to name a few.

As for conservation work, Liberty Wildlife biologists worked with numerous government groups, utilities, and developers to relocated bird nests and to investigate the circumstances of any adverse encounters between wildlife and the public. 

But we've gone even further, demonstrating to the public how to live in harmony with wildlife, in a sustainable way. Our 6 ½ acre campus features 4 biomes of the Southwest, including upper and lower Sonoran desert, riparian habitat, and wetlands. Solar panels on our facility produced nearly 400 kWh of energy every day and our rainwater harvesting cisterns collected over 400,000 gallons for use in our landscape irrigation.

These lessons in living in harmony with nature may seem new to many of us, but not to our neighbors in the indigenous community. Many Native American communities have deeply important cultural and spiritual connections to wildlife, especially to feathers.

That's why in 2010, Liberty Wildlife partnered with U.S. Fish & Wildlife to create a unique program to take molted and other fallen feathers from our rehab facility and to provide these to registered members of federally recognized Native American tribes at no cost. The program has exceeded expectations, and now takes donations of fallen feathers from many other zoos and wildlife rehab facilities nationwide.  

Over ten years into this program we have now provided feathers to over 4,400 individuals for ceremonies including graduations, adoptions and countless other culturally significant events. And we've reached individuals in 44 states and over 209 different tribes. 

Liberty Wildlife has been constantly changing and adapting program to meet the needs of wildlife and the community of people who care for and about these animals. As we continue to grow into our full 6 ½ acre campus, we see ever more opportunities to adapt and add new learning opportunities, and to enhance the visitor experience with wildlife for the thousands of schoolchildren we serve each year, and for all of our visitors. 

New signage is being added for each animal in our educational program, with QR codes that link to bios of these animals (both in English and in Spanish). We are enhancing the safety and security of our campus with new fencings and improvements to enclosures. And we are adding new enclosures for our California condors, and a variety of mammals, including our bobcat, ringtail cat, coatimundi, and fox.