For each calendar sold, $2 will go to the Game and Fish Department’s Wildlife Center in Phoenix, which provides rehabilitative care to wildlife and educates the public about Arizona’s diverse species of wild animals.

Each year, the Wildlife Center cares for more than 1,000 sick, hurt, or orphaned birds, mammals, reptiles, and yes, even amphibians. Some animals stay only briefly before being released back into the wild, while others become permanent residents because they have lifelong disabilities. Those that stay become members of the center’s educational programs.
 

One of the permanent residents is a bobcat that was declawed to become a family pet and can no longer defend itself in the wild. Another lifelong resident is a great horned owl. Found in the wild as a baby, he was raised without proper nutrition, resulting in a permanent deformity of his beak and an inability to catch and eat wild foods. Another wild animal living permanently at the center is a Gila monster whose head was run over by a car. Game and Fish wired his jaw back together, but he will never be able to survive in the wild.

The work that Arizona Game and Fish employees and dozens of volunteers do at the Wildlife Center is crucial to the study, conservation and care of Arizona’s wonderful wild creatures.

The 2005 Wildlife Calendar will go on sale in mid-October at all AZGFD regional offices, check back here for more details.