This picture is of a Canada Lynx, taken at the Frisco Creek wildlife Hospital and Rehabilitation Center, formerly known as the Dietrich Native Species Treatment Center, in Colorado. This center played a key role in Colorado’s Canada lynx recovery effort, and continues to do so today. The center was acquired by the Colorado Division of Wildlife from a private owner, Susan Dieterich, who had established the facility with her husband in 1989. Susan and Herman Dieterich worked tirelessly for many years treating and rehabilitating animals as small as song birds and as large as moose. The couple became among the most respected of wildlife rehabilitators. Their efforts, which began on a private 234-acre ranch, evolved into a 12-acre rehabilitation center on that ranch, in a remote wildlife-rich area. More than 3,000 individual animals were cared for by the couple, who each had veterinary expertise. Black bears, numbering 100, 25 mountain lions and 50 eagles, all received loving care at the facility courtesy of the Dieterichs. In the years 2001 and 2002, 70 orphaned or injured black bears were brought to Frisco Creek for care, after a drought and resultant food crop failure. Most of those black bears were cared for and released back into the wild. After Herman Dieterich died suddenly, in 2003, his wife continued operation of the center, with support from Division of Wildlife staff members. The Division of Wildlife formally acquired the facility in 2004. The center continues to specialize in the rehabilitation and species conservation of large carnivores, especially the Canada lynx. It is a full-service wildlife hospital receiving referred cases from all over Colorado, and serves as a lynx holding facility for those big Canada cats which inhabit high elevations. They prey primarily on snowshoe rabbits. The endangered Canada Lynx, which enjoys federal protection in some states, has been a victim of intensive trapping, habitat loss and degradation, and lack of universal protection under law. The species will have a chance at recovery, but only where the Endangered Species Act is fully implemented. One or two people can, like the Dieterichs, make a big difference in the future of animals.

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