This bald eagle is one of Mercer County Wildlife Center’s “ambassador animals.”
Wildlife Center “Ambassadors,” Animal Rehabilitation, and Educational Outreach
By Donald H. Sanborn III | Photos courtesy of Mercer County Wildlife Center
Given that the USA’s 250th anniversary has only recently passed, it seems fitting that one of the first sights greeting visitors to the Lambertville-based Mercer County Wildlife Center is a bald eagle — one that is celebrating its 20th birthday this year.
The eagle is one of the center’s “ambassador animals,” occupying the center’s Outdoor Education Environment (OEE). Like the other ambassador animals, the eagle was brought to the center for emergency medical care, and is unable to be released back into the wild.
According to its website, the Mercer County Wildlife Center is “a state and federally licensed facility that cares for injured, ill, and displaced native wildlife. The center provides these animals with medical treatment and a temporary refuge before releasing them back into an appropriate wild habitat.”
The center’s director, Jane Rakos-Yates, notes that the facility is “owned and operated by the Mercer County Park Commission; and supported with the Wildlife Center Friends (WCF), the nonprofit arm of the Wildlife Center.”
Rakos-Yates specifies that the center is “permitted by New Jersey Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Pennsylvania Game Commission to accept and treat wildlife. It is illegal to keep a wild animal as a pet in New Jersey. This is for the safety of our residents and the animals.”
She adds, “The center accepts over 3,000 native mammals, birds, and reptiles that are injured, sick, or displaced [per year], with the goal of releasing them back into the environment.” Staff members respond to “over 12,000 telephone calls annually from residents with wildlife questions and concerns, providing an important service to Mercer County residents.”
Infant Virginia opossums.
Early Years
The Mercer County Wildlife Center was founded in 1983, in the basement of the Mercer County Correction Center. A new work program for the inmates made it possible for them to be part of the wildlife center’s operation, feeding and cleaning the animals.
According to a 2013 article by Nicole Golden for Wildlife Journal (a publication of Mercer County Wildlife Center), then-County Naturalist Joseph Schmeltz “recognized the need to take over wildlife rehabilitation in the area after the nature center at Washington Crossing State Park stopped accepting animals.” Schmeltz “was inundated with calls from people who wanted to help wildlife in distress but had no means or facility to help.” The wildlife center’s first patient was a female mallard duck.
By 1991 both the correctional facility and the wildlife center had expanded to the extent that the latter had to find new premises. “The operation was moved down the driveway to the old farmhouse across the street from the prison workhouse,” notes Golden.
In 1994 Diane Nickerson replaced Schmeltz as director of the center. Golden writes, “Volunteer interest grew as the center grew. Patient load continued to increase as public awareness increased.”
Eventually the participation of inmates was phased out in favor of interns and volunteers.
By 2005 the center had outgrown the farmhouse, so operations had to be transferred to a set of trailers on the property, while plans were formed for the construction of a new facility.
Raccoons enjoying their pool.
The new building was completed in 2009. “Luckily, as before, the move was on the same property,” recalls Golden. “Troops of volunteers were called in, and the caravan of carriers full of animals made their way to the new building. Noah may have had the right idea only taking two of each species! Almost 70 screaming raccoons, plus the menagerie of other animals — all in different stages of care — were carefully transported by the faithful volunteers and interns. The 6,000-square-foot building was enormous compared to the three trailers, but it was quickly filled.”
“The facilities have expanded and changed greatly over the last 30 years,” Golden writes, adding that in addition to a surgical suite, the building has “an indoor pool for waterfowl, and many more upgrades. I do feel the need to add that the new building provides us with two human bathrooms; one even has a shower, and neither is shared with any critters!”
From Volunteer to Director
Rakos-Yates joined the center as a volunteer in 1996. Asked what led her to become involved, she explains, “I started as a volunteer after I found a baby bird that had fallen out of its nest.” She adds that she knew Nickerson from previous employment. “So, when I brought the baby bird, Diane said, ‘Why don’t you come and volunteer?’ I said, ‘Okay.’ And I started volunteering and that was it — I never left.”
She adds, “I was hired part-time in 2001, and then started full-time in 2007.” She has served as the center’s clinic supervisor, volunteer coordinator, and then, she says, “I became director two years ago, when Diane retired.”
After 30 years, Rakos-Yates still recalls her first day as a volunteer. She says that Nickerson “didn’t give me a lot of information. She just said, go clean the raccoon cages. That’s what I did for the summer, my first volunteer session. I always tell that to our interns, because there’s a lot of cleaning. And sometimes that gets a little tedious, but with animals, there’s just no way around it.”
Mercer County Wildlife Center’s 2026 summer interns.
Rakos-Yates delineates the center’s personnel. The current roster includes “four full-time staff, 10 part-time staff, 85 volunteers, and 14 volunteer interns,” she says. “It takes a village to manage the center and its animals.”
She is quick to add that the volunteer and intern program is “essential to the daily operations of cleaning and feeding the animals, and all the behind-the-scenes tasks that take place to provide the best care for the animals that are admitted.”
Tasks include “never-ending laundry of animal bedding, food preparation, cleaning, and more cleaning. We always say how lucky we are to have our amazing volunteers; many have been here for over 10 years!”
Infant Eastern chipmunk.
Day-to-day operation of the center, which is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., entails staggering staffers’ shifts. “We have some staff come in from 8 to 4, and others from 12 to 8,” Rakos-Yates explains. “Full-time staff will manage the animal intakes and the telephone calls. We have about 85 volunteers that come throughout the week; they do one four-hour shift once a week in the summertime.”
She adds, “We have college interns that come and do four days a week here, and they are amazing in the help that they provide. But we provide them with the education, and the ability to put on their resume the experience of being here for the 12-week program.”
Having served as director of the Wildlife Center for two years, “I look back at when I started in 1996 as a volunteer and then started as paid staff in 2001. That was so long ago, but my passion for caring for wildlife and sharing my knowledge has never waned.” She says, “I could never accomplish this without the amazing team of staff, volunteers, interns, and the Park Commission and WCF partners.”
White-tailed deer fawns bottle feeding.
Educational Outreach
“Wildlife rehabilitation is our primary mission, but we take pride in educating everyone about wildlife — whether you call us, bring us an animal that needs help, or through the education sessions we provide to our college interns,” Rakos-Yates says. “We also offer on- and off-site education programs and have the OEE with our 12 ambassador animals on display. The OEE is open to the public for free, self-guided tours.”
She adds, “We get a lot of invitations to go to different schools and events.” Visits by representatives from the center consist of an “hour-long program. We usually take three of our ambassador animals. We’ll talk about the center and what we do here, and then we talk the history of the animals that we bring.”
For Rakos-Yates, some of the center’s most crucial wildlife education begins when animals are brought in for care, or in the course of the “12,000 telephone calls that we get every year. Every day that we operate we are providing education with the community.”
She considers common cases involving injured animals. “This time of year a lot of baby animals fall out of trees. We tell people that a lot of times, if you put the baby animal back underneath the tree, make sure it’s warm. A lot of times its parents will come and take it back.” In many cases “wildlife does not abandon their young. A lot of people don’t realize that.” She adds that, to maximize safety and warmth, injured animals should be wrapped in a towel prior to transportation to the center.
Infant Eastern cottontails.
Patients and “Ambassadors”
Rakos-Yates notes that frequent patients are “rabbits — Eastern cottontails. People find them in their yards, mostly because dogs will find them. Everybody says, ‘I don’t know why the rabbits put that nest in the middle of my yard.’ We reply that habitat is a prime luxury right now, because of all the development. Rabbits being the bottom of the food chain, they will often take their chances with dogs in people’s fenced-in yards — because if they put their nest outside of the fenced-in yard, the babies definitely will be prey to foxes and to hawks.”
She notes that the facility’s medical equipment includes “a digital X-ray, which helps us with diagnosis of the patients. We probably take at least 20 X-rays a day here.”
Asked about success stories involving patients that the center has helped this year, Rakos-Yates recalls “a group of common merganser ducks, which is not a duck that you regularly see on the river. But we had about eight of them — young nestlings. Something must have happened to the mom, because they were gathered in a parking lot, all huddled together. A Good Samaritan was able to round them up and bring them to us.” After the ducks’ stay at the center, which lasted six or seven weeks, caregivers were “able to successfully release them last week, which was very rewarding.”
“In the last 10 years we treated about 3,000 animals a year. This year we’re up almost 500 animals from last year,”
she says.
She points out that some facilities specialize in bird or mammals, to the exclusion of other species. Treating multiple species requires “specific protocols for each, which “always makes it more challenging in a rehabilitation setting. But we treat reptiles, birds, and mammals.”
Ambassador animals are a central component of the center’s educational outreach. In addition to the bald eagle, they include “red-tailed hawks, owls, and an albino squirrel, just to name a few,” Rakos-Yates says. “The OEE is surrounded by a native pollinator garden which provides enrichment to the ambassador animals with insects, birds, and other animals that visit the OEE and enjoy the fruits of the native plantings.”
Asked which animals are taken to visit schools, Rakos-Yates replies, “Usually we’ll take red-tailed hawks, the turkey vulture, or the screech owls.” The center also has “big brown bats that we often take as well.”
“We take three animals for our education program,” she adds. “Usually they include “a bird, a mammal, and a reptile.” Besides the hawks, turkey vulture, and screech owls, other options include a Virginia opossum, big brown bat, and Eastern box turtle.
Rakos-Yates says that the center’s staff members are constantly asked, “What is your favorite animal?” She notes, “I do hold a special place for striped skunks because they are unpopular to most.”
However, she adds, “I am sure all of us have a favorite species at the center, but we must treat all the animals with the best medical and husbandry care, so they have a second chance when released.”
“Rehabilitation of wildlife is the opposite of working with domestic animals,” she emphasizes. “Socialization with animal patients is prohibited. Wildlife must be afraid of humans when they are released — so there is no talking, minimal handling only to feed or clean, and no conversations in the rooms with the animals.”
What We Can Do
Asked how people can help beyond bringing injured animals in for care, participating in the educational outreach programs, and becoming a volunteer, Rakos-Yates draws attention to a “wish list.” Available in print on the center’s premises, or digitally on their website, the list is “essential in maintaining the animal care here.” Items listed include cleaning materials, office supplies, receiving blankets, and formula for different animals.
“Last year we received over $500,000 worth of in-kind supplies such as paper towels, bleach, laundry detergent, animal food, and much more,” Rakos-Yates says. Nevertheless, “There are still so many other things that we need on a day-to-day basis.”
She hastens to acknowledge, “We are very grateful to the Mercer County Park Commission that provides us with this building, staff, and funds to operate the Wildlife Center. Wildlife Center Friends is also amazing with their generous support of food, caging, and supplies that are always needed.” She adds, “Wildlife Center Friends, a nonprofit entity, allows us to accept needed donations.”
Asked what she most wants readers to know about Mercer County Wildlife Center, Rakos-Yates replies, “I always wish that more people knew about us so that they could come and visit.”
She emphasizes that she wants the center to be a resource when people “find an animal that they think is injured or needs help. They can call us; we always call them back. We are here for them and are always willing to help.”
The Mercer County Wildlife Center is located at 1748 River Road in Lambertville. If you find an animal in need, call 609.303.0552. Patients are accepted by appointment only, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. The Outdoor Education Environment is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m.to 4 p.m. For more information or to donate supplies, visit wildlifecenterfriends.org.
