Experience Wildlife in Walnut Creek and Bring the Kids

This place is awesome!!!

Reviewer on Yelp

Lindsay Wildlife Experience in Walnut Creek is the only place I know that honors its celebrity turkey vulture with a birthday party. But then Lindsay is a special place.

Founded in 1955, Lindsay has a lively visitor center, or Exhibit Hall, that attracts nearly 100,000 people each year to view its informative exhibits, attend its programs, and see resident Animal Ambassadors.

Adjoining the Exhibit Hall is Lindsay’s Rehabilitation Hospital, It treats more than 5,500 animals annually, making it one of the largest hospitals of its kind in the world.

Exhibit Hall

The Exhibit Hall lives up to its name with a wealth of exhibits that are both informative and cleverly designed. They carry out founder Alexander Lindsay’s mission of educating children (and adults!).

There are displays showing bird talons (“Get a Grip!”), comparative sizes of wingspans, and causes of animal injuries among numerous others.

A big hit with kids is the raptor’s view of the ground while in flight. A delighted child lies on a bench before a flat screen and guides the bird’s flight path with controls, altering the terrain underneath it in the process.

Particularly interesting is the causes of injury display that shows the Hospitals’s most common cases. In order of frequency, they are orphaned animals, interactions with cats, physical trauma, window and wall collisions, and displacement from nests.

If cat owners kept their animals indoors, Lindsay’s case load would be lower and the welfare of songbirds greatly improved.

Along with educating its visitors, Lindsay’s goal is to restore the health of injured animals and return them to the wild. Those who will not survive in the wild remain at Lindsay, where they become Ambassador Animals. Their purpose is to display their majesty and highlight their contributions to preserving the environment.

Until avian pathogenic influenza became a recent danger, Lindsay kept Ambassador raptors, such as hawks, owls, and eagles, on display in the main exhibit area. Because the virus is highly contagious and humans are prone to bringing it into the Exhibit Hall on their shoes, Lindsay moved the birds from its Walnut Creek facility until the virus runs its course.

A few raptors were not moved and can be seen outside the Exhibit Hall on Lindsay’s lower grounds, which resemble a park. The most celebrated resident is Lord Richard, a California Turkey Vulture who has reached the astonishing age of 48, three times a vulture’s normal life expectancy.

Lord Richard is said to enjoy a bit of watermelon with his carnivorous meals and even a cupcake when his birthday rolls around.

In spite of the temporary absence of certain Ambassadors, many remain on view in the Exhibit Hall. They include reptiles (lizards and snakes) and invertebrates (tarantulas and a good-sized black widow).

Two bears donated by a taxidermist have an imposing presence. A grizzly stands on its hind legs and the black bear is a ringer for its iconic depiction on the California State flag.

Hospital

After we entered the Exhibit Hall on our recent visit to Lindsay, we were directed to a glassed-off viewing room in the Hospital. There we watched two technicians treat a gopher snake that suffered abrasions when tangled in a tomato net, a typical example of the programs Lindsay offers.

Above the window in the viewing room was a flat screen that showed Lindsay’s release of animals.

A trio of foxes dashed out of a carrier and disappeared into the brush. A great horned owl and golden eagle flew off their handler’s protective gloves. A beaver ambled down a slope to a stream. Vive la liberte!

The veterinarian in the viewing room generously answered our many questions about urban populations of raccoons, skunks, and opossums. She explained that humans unwittingly attract these savvy scavengers to their neighborhoods by putting out food for feral cats. Unknown to them, animals keep a book on what houses in the neighborhood are serving.

The vet also explained how careful hospital staff are to avoid bonding with their patients. Food and eye contract draw animals closer to their keepers and weaken their willingness to find food themselves. Therefore, staffers hide their faces when feeding their patients, a critical time when animals are most susceptible to bonding.

An example of the effect of domestication is a red-tailed hawk that was found outside the nest. It developed such a craving for human interaction during its early care, it had to stay in captivity when it became grown. The hawk became a member of the Ambassador team.

Rehabilitation sometimes takes a long time. Crispy, a barn owl who was badly singed when it came into contact with the Marsh Island Power Plant near Antioch needed almost two years to molt new flight feathers and return to the wild. For more on Crisp, see the video at the bottom of the home page.

Lindsay has a gift shop near its entrance, and this Grandpa could not resist buying his grandson Ian a stuffed bald eagle and a children’s book on neighborhood birding.

For information on hours, location, and admission price see Lindsay’s website. http://www.lindsaywildlife.org