Hope Swinimer and animal rehabilitation staff member Tessa Jackson examine the x-ray of a patient on the successful Nova Scotia series Hope for Wildlife. The popular show broadcast worldwide in over 70 countries celebrates its 10th anniversary season with new episodes airing Friday nights at 11 p.m. on the Cottage Life channel. - Arcadia Content

A stranded seal joins some discombobulated beavers in recovery in the aquatic unit of Seaforth's Hope for Wildlife in the first episode of the 10th anniversary edition of the Cottage Life series, airing on Friday night at 11 p.m.

An orphaned newborn bear cub faces an uncertain future in the second episode of Cottage Life's 10th anniversary season of the Nova Scotia-produced show Hope for Wildlife, airing Friday nights at 11 p.m. - Arcadia Content

A leading proponent for wildlife rescue and rehabilitation, Hope Swinimer — seen here with Gretel the playful pine marten — and her staff and volunteers at the Hope for Wildlife centre in Seaforth return for a 10th season of the Cottage Life program. New episodes begin airing Friday at 11 p.m. with reruns in a variety of timeslots during the week. - Arcadia Content

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SEAFORTH, N.S. —

It only takes a few seconds of the Skydiggers’ heartwarming Hello Beautiful Life and those sweeping aerial shots of a former seaside farm on the coastline outside Halifax to know a new episode of Hope for Wildlife has begun.

Starting on Friday at 11 p.m., animal rehabilitator Hope Swinimer and her team at the Hope for Wildlife centre in Seaforth return for the 10th season of the popular series on the Cottage Life network, produced by Halifax’s Arcadia Content. Currently, the channel is in free preview mode until May 3.

With each new season comes new challenges and new animals to rescue, treat and hopefully return to their natural habitat, and devoted viewers can also follow the changes at the centre, which has grown considerably in terms of size and support since the show premiered in 2011.

“It’s funny how fast things change, even between seasons,” says Swinimer over the phone from the centre. “Since last year, we’ve set up a new ICU, so animals that come in can go there to ensure they’re stabilized, and it might be three days or two weeks.

“But if they’re getting meds or physiotherapy, they stay there, and that’s a new section that will be prominently featured this season. It seems like we’re always running out of space, even though it’s big now. But every year the staff and volunteers say that we need a new crow unit or a new raven unit, so we’re always continuously trying to keep up with the demand of what’s needed for the new patients coming in.”

Season 10 starts with a splash in its first episode, with aquatic mammals like stranded seals and mysteriously discombobulated beavers coming in for treatment, followed next week by a newborn bear cub who presents a serious challenge for the staff and volunteers once they’re past the initial “Awwwww....” stage over how adorable it is.

“The new marine units and the ability to give better care to seals and beavers, as well as otters and aquatic birds like seagulls, has become a bigger part of what we do,” says Swiminer. “People probably won’t even pick it up on the show, but the quality of life we can give ducks and gulls while they’re rehabilitating is a big change.

“There’s a lot less feather and foot damage, because we’ve got these better facilities, and their process of healing is so much quicker, their stress level is better ... Which I can see just by going back and seeing how much better it is than it used to be.”

International success

Besides the new episodes airing on Cottage Life, which is also hosting a day-long marathon of past episodes on Saturday, Hope for Wildlife repeats also air in Canada on the Love Nature, National Geographic Wild and BBC Earth channels, and it’s shown around the world in 70 countries by broadcasters in the U.S., U.K., Central and Eastern Europe, New Zealand and Hong Kong.

The exposure has certainly boosted the numbers at the centre’s annual summer open house days, and helped with fundraising efforts like the Hope For Wildlife Spring Lottery, but Swinimer is even more enthusiastic about the show’s effect on raising public awareness of the need for wilderness protection and becoming part of improved care for injured and orphaned animals at other centres in Canada and worldwide.

“I look at this as a very new science where we’re learning every day and we’re getting better at what we do every day,” she says. “What we did 10 years ago were recognized and accepted by the veterinary world, but now have been proven to be incorrect or have been improved upon.

“I think what really amazes me is how far we’ve come and how much we’ve learned, and how different the medical care required by wild animals is from, say, a dog or a cat. It’s opened up a tremendous opportunity to learn about nature and how to care for it when we’ve been the cause of its injury.”

Coping with COVID-19

After these latest episodes of Hope for Wildlife were wrapped by producer/narrator Craig Ferguson and his crew, Hope for Wildlife entered a new phase of operations in the era of COVID-19.

The facility is still operating, and animals are still being helped, but with some different approaches to ensure the safety of its staff and volunteers.

“The good news is, we already have a lot of practices and procedures in place due to the risks of zoonotic diseases, so we practice a level of cleanliness and care that most other businesses wouldn’t even think about,” explains Swinimer, who says they’ve also established a safe protocol for animal drop-off that ensures minimal contact between Hope for Wildlife workers and the public.

Meanwhile, those who run the centre can spread themselves out to perform separate tasks at the education centre, the outdoor enclosures and the animal ICU.

“As a charitable organization that deals with species that could be carrying virus and bacteria, some of which can be transferred to humans, we already work at a high standard of caution, but when it comes to members of the public, and the volunteers and staff it takes to run the centre, that’s where it gets difficult.

“We may come to work and not see anybody, even though we know there may be five or six other people at work.”

Looking forward to what the new season will bring in terms of feedback and support, Swinimer is also hoping that spending time with new stories about wildlife, rehabilitation and rejuvenation will give viewers some respite from the dark cloud of gloom created by current events.

For her own part, Swinimer was able to find a bit of serenity this week while joining staff members in the annual task of returning the nine white geese back to Sullivan’s Pond from their winter home at the centre.

“When we were done, we looked at the geese heading back to the pond, looking out over the water, and the most peaceful feeling came over me. It was healing, it really was.”