For millennia the waters and wetlands, woodlands and grasslands of New York were filled and overrun by a large diversity of fish, birds, deer, elk, moose, bison, black bear, fox, cougar, bobcat, and lynx.  They lived in natural harmony with the early Americans who were living here at the time.

 

Yet, when entrepreneurial Europeans came over they hunted wild animals to extinction, clear-cut/drained the wetlands and plowed the New York grasslands. Then when new settlers moved in, wild animals were either killed or pushed out when the domesticated livestock were turned loose to graze and browse freely in fields, marshes, and woods. Many New York wild animals, fish and game birds declined so drastically that by the early eighteenth century the populace started to take a closer look into protections for land and wild animals in New York.

 

WEBSITES

 

RESCUE GROUPS

 

Erie County
  • Messinger Woods – (Federal Migratory Birds) – 716-627-1018 / 716-572-2720 (cell)
  • WNY Raptor and Wildlife Care – (Raptor and Wildlife Care) – 716-983-7315

 

Essex County

 

Clinton County
  • Marcia Parent (baby raccoons only) – 518-314-1904; ceII 802-578-8733

 

Cortland County
  • Suzanne Scheuring (Native turtles, reptiles and amphibians) – 607-753-0652

 

Greene County
  • Friends of the Feathered & Furry Wildlife Center –

 

Madison County
  • Safe Haven Wildlife Rehab – 315-454-2286 / 315-687-6962 (cell)
  • PineShadow Rehab – 315-825-5410

 

 

Nassau County
  • Squirrel Sanctuary, Inc.

 

New York County
  • Geese Girls Nuisance Wildlife – 516-205-6846

 

Niagara County

 

 

Oswego County
  • Deona’s Promises – 315-675-3296, 315-560-8409

 

 

Sulfolk County
  • Virginia Frati Wildlife Rescue Center of the Hamptoms – 631-728-4200 / 631-725-5895
  • Volunteers for Wildlife Inc. – 631-423-0982
  • Elizabeth M. Santosus (Opossums Only) – 631-261-6895

 

Ulster County

 

 

Wayne County
  • Caring for Cottontails Wildlife Rescue & Rehab – 585-410-3017

 

 

Westchester County

The Wild Thing, Inc. – 914-456-4844