Michael Ziccardi heads the Oiled Wildlife Care Network at UC Davis. He says to date…they’ve only collected one, live oiled bird…but that could change soon. And Ziccardi told Capital Public Radio’s Insight today they’re bracing for that possibility.
“We’ve established four regional oiled bird facilities to care for animals and four marine mammal and sea turtle facilities so that if and when oiled animals are collected we can rapidly start providing the best care possible.”
Ziccardi says some of the animals with the highest-risk of being injured from the spill include sea otters, dolphins and some birds.
UC Davis’ Oiled Wildlife Care Network was created in 1994. Since that time, the program has responded to more than 60 oil spills and cared for more than seven-thousand birds in California.