A longtime wildlife rehabilitation center in Northeast Kansas has closed one of its two building locations due to a reduction in funding.

Operation Wildlife, the largest publicly funded wildlife clinic in Kansas, closed its Shawnee Mission location in December. The main 4,000-square-foot building in Linwood, Kansas, will remain open.

Diane Johnson, executive director, said the nonprofit organization receives injured or displaced wildlife from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, the Kansas Highway Patrol and private individuals. It has been providing rehabilitation and veterinary services in Northeast Kansas for more than 25 years.

The organization has around 100 volunteers who cover wildlife found in the nine counties of Atchison, Doniphan, Jefferson, Wyandotte, Miami, Franklin, Osage, Leavenworth and Douglas.

She said the majority of wildlife reports received are from hunters while they are afield. Wildlife rehabilitated often are birds of prey such as hawks, owls and eagles.

Johnson said there are no state or federal funding opportunities for the organization and it relies entirely on public donations. Due to rising costs, the group decided to close its Shawnee Mission satellite location.

Their 4,000-square-foot rehabilitation and education facility enables rehabilitators to provide a full range of physical therapy for wildlife, including ultrasound. The facility is also fully equipped with a surgical suite, radiology, outdoor enclosures and a songbird habitat.

The facility receives thousands of wild animals each year, with a release rate back into the wild of 69 percent, which is 20 percent higher than the national average for rehabilitation centers.

“We do a lot of extra things to get them well and get them back out into the wild,” Johnson said. “I like working with animals and feeling a sense of accomplishment when we release them. Our reward is getting to see them fly free again.”

Operation Wildlife often receives reports from outdoorsmen and partners with them to rehabilitate wildlife.

Johnson said an American White Pelican from Perry Lake had been reported to be caught in a fishing net and was emaciated.

“We put out a call for fish to feed him and we had fishermen who were fishing in that zero-degree-below weather off the lake in order to bring up crappie and bass for him to eat,” Johnson said. “We were recently able to heal him and return him to the wild.”

She said the organization receives two or three eagles a year impacted by lead poisoning. She said they use lead care analyzer equipment manufactured for humans when testing for lead in order to receive a faster diagnosis.

“When you draw blood from a bird and sent it to a lab it takes four to five days to get the results back, but we needed the results immediately,” Johnson said. “It took two years to save $2,500 to buy lead care analyzer equipment manufactured for humans so we can lead test the animals when they come in. It takes 180 seconds to get a result so we can begin treatment, which had greatly reduced animals dying of lead poisoning at our facility.”

A few years ago, Operation Wildlife also received a grant to study the survival rate of bobcats that are rehabilitated at the facility and released back into the wild. A protocol was developed on how to raise the animals to mimic what would happen with feeding in the wild. Telemetry collars were placed on seven bobcats and volunteers tracked them. The results showed four were tracked and survived, two were not successfully tracked and one died, indicating a high success rate.

For more information, contact Operation Wildlife at 785-542-3625 or at www.owl-online.org.