The Wildlife Hotline was put together by a group of wildlife rehabilitators in the Missouri and Illinois area to offer assistance with wildlife conflicts. When you call the hotline you will be connected with a wildlife specialist who is available to answer questions regarding all of our native wild animals, help you determine if an animal is in need of rescue, find a local rehab center for you, and explain your legal rights within the Wildlife Code.
Our specialists are volunteers who either are working for a wildlife rehabilitation center currently, or have in the past, and have been educated by the NWRA or IWRC as rehabilitators. We have specialists that are located in Missouri and Illinois, from many different counties, and who are knowledgeable with mammals, birds of prey, songbirds, reptiles, and domestic animal/wildlife conflicts. The hotline is manned 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. If you are forwarded to voice mail, that voice mail is sent to all of our volunteers and responded to as quickly as possible, usually within an hour. This service is available for police, animal control, conservation centers, nature centers, etc. to refer citizen’s wildlife calls to, anytime the need arises.
The Wildlife Hotline is here to help when you are in need, even if you need us on a Sunday, or in the middle of the night!
Call us for issues like these:
Wildlife Conflicts – squirrel in the attic, groundhog digging up your yard, skunk sprayed your dog, raccoon stuck in a dumpster
Orphaned Wildlife – baby squirrels fell out of a tree, baby skunks living under your porch, baby birds trying to fly
Injured Wildlife – raccoon circling in your yard in daylight hours, deer hit by car on side of road, hawk unable to fly, goose tangled in fishing line
Wildlife Education – why is this opossum sitting on my fence? will the coyote attack my dog? is this skunk going to spray me?
Abuse Reporting – neighbor is trapping animals and not attending to the traps, coworker is hunting outside of hunting season, neighborhood kids are terrorizing birds and squirrels in the area
Until now, wildlife related calls from the public had nowhere to go. The conservation departments, rabies control, animal control, humane societies and animal rescues were bombarded with calls that they just couldn’t give the proper attention to. Some calls were going to our police and fire departments in a desperate attempt to get any sort of assistance at all. When callers were told that no one could help, people were left with just the option to call pest control companies to handle their conflicts, often spending hundreds of dollars they don’t have, and ultimately resulting in injury or death to the animals. The Wildlife Hotline is happy to assist in these cases. While we cannot always have someone “on-site” to assist, many times all that is needed is a telephone consultation to educate homeowners of how to handle these conflicts on their own, safely and humanely. It is a win-win situation. The caller gets the information that they need to resolve their conflict, the homeowner gets to keep the hundreds of dollar that they may have spent with a pest control company, plus the animal conflict is settled humanely and efficiently.
We are a 100% volunteer based organization. Our wildlife specialists are assisting you out of their compassion for the wildlife involved. Our specialists are also concerned that the public learn the correct information about these animals, in order to solve conflicts in a way that benefits everyone, and does no harm to the lives involved, or the environment around us.
Call (636) 492 – 1610 to speak with a wildlife specialist.
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