Wild West Wildlife Rehabilitation Center

11/02/2026

HOLIDAY CLOSURE DATES

As we head into the holiday season, we wanted to give everyone a heads-up about the days Wild West Wildlife Rehabilitation Center will be closed so our hardworking team can enjoy some much-deserved time with their families.

If you find a wild animal during one of our closed days, please keep it somewhere warm, dark, quiet, and safe until we reopen. Please do not offer food or water unless instructed by a wildlife rehabilitator.

🚨 If it is a true wildlife emergency, our transport team will still be on call.
📱 Call or text 806-680-2483

Thank you for understanding and for allowing our team a little time to rest, recharge, and spend time with their families. We appreciate our community more than you know!

10/31/2026

BUSTED!

This morning, when our team arrived, we caught Chewy and Thelma red-handed! 😂 They were busy pulling things out of the Bug Hotel that was built for us by a Scout. Apparently, they decided it needed a little remodeling… without asking permission.

So, what exactly is a Bug Hotel? A bug hotel is a structure filled with natural materials like wood, sticks, bark, pinecones, and hollow stems that creates safe little spaces for beneficial insects to hide, nest, and even overwinter. These tiny residents play important roles in our ecosystem, including pollination and breaking down organic material.

Unfortunately, Chewy and Thelma seem to think the Bug Hotel is less of a hotel and more of an all-you-can-destroy enrichment station.

10/30/2026

Thank you for understanding why we weren’t able to do our LIVE yesterday! ❤️ This is what we were up to behind the scenes at the Amarillo Zoo and Sanctuary.

And let’s just say…the hardest one to catch and sedate was NOT the jaguar. 😂 It was the spider monkey! The strength on a smaller monkey was incredible.

Never a dull moment, but we are incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to give these senior animals the care they need and deserve.

10/29/2026

📣 We apologize for the short notice, but there will be no LIVE today!

Our senior team is over at the Amarillo Zoo & Sanctuary today working alongside Dr. Cabello and veterinarians from Texas Tech University School of Veterinary Medicine to perform comprehensive exams and physicals under sedation on several of our senior zoo animals.

These exams allow the veterinary team to get a much more thorough look at our animals and are especially important as they get older. Today, that includes some of our senior residents such as the spider monkeys and several others.

Animal care always comes first, so our team is all hands on deck today! ❤️

Thank you for understanding, and we’ll be back with you for our next LIVE!

10/29/2026

As we head into fall and the holiday season, we’re excited to offer some new opportunities for families to get up close, learn about wildlife, and spend some time with our amazing animal ambassadors!

📚 WILDLIFE STORY TIME — $5 per person/child

Join us for a special 30–45 minute Story Time featuring a wildlife-themed book, followed by the chance to meet the featured animal in person and learn all about them!

🐾 November 4 at 10:30 AM — Prairie Dogs
🐾 November 11 at 10:30 AM — Bobcats
🐾 December 2 at 10:30 AM — Opossums
🐾 December 9 at 10:30 AM — Skunks
🐾 December 16 at 10:30 AM — Badgers

Space is limited to 25 people per Story Time, so be sure to reserve your spot!

🎟️ Tickets & reservations:
www.wildwestwildlife.com/experiences-tickets

Every visit helps support the animals and the lifesaving work happening right here at Wild West Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.

We offer educational programs, educational birthday parties, and camp tours.

10/26/2026

FACE YOUR FEAR was AMAZING!

The Wild West Wildlife Rehabilitation Center team had an incredible time at Boo at the Zoo sharing our education ambassadors and helping everyone learn a little more about the wild neighbors we share our community with!

We were absolutely blown away by the turnout. We even had followers drive as far as 3½ hours just to come meet our team and our ambassadors! ❤️ At one point, the line stretched down the ramp and all the way around the monkey moat!

To everyone who waited in line, asked questions, faced a fear, touched something you never thought you would 😂, or simply stopped by to learn—THANK YOU!

Education is such an important part of what we do. The more we understand and appreciate wildlife, the better we can coexist with and protect the incredible animals that call our communities home.

Thank you for your continued support of Wild West Wildlife Rehabilitation Center and for making Face Your Fear such a huge success!

We’ll see you next year!

10/23/2026

We’re happy to share that the juvenile raccoon who was found in the trash compactor is continuing to improve!

He’s getting a little stronger every day. He does have some congestion when he eats, but the good news is that he is eating very happily—and we definitely want to see that appetite! He came to us extremely underweight and dehydrated, so every meal is an important step toward getting him healthy again.

And we have to give him some extra credit…he’s been such a good boy and has actually kept his IV catheter in! 😂 If you know raccoons, you know that is quite an accomplishment. Most of them decide overnight that IV catheters are absolutely unacceptable and remove them themselves.

For now, we’ll continue supportive care, plenty of good nutrition, and lots of monitoring while he gets stronger.

Keep rooting for this little guy!

10/21/2026

Good Morning! -Thor

10/21/2026

Today, we received a call from the City of Amarillo, Texas about a juvenile raccoon in critical condition who had become trapped in a sump pump. WWWRC Team Member Summer headed out on the rescue and was able to safely get him out.

Once back at Wild West, Dr. Cabello and our team immediately went to work stabilizing him. He was underweight, severely dehydrated, and covered in the juices from all kinds of trash—and when we say the smell was awful, it takes A LOT to make our team gag! 🤢

He was started on IV fluids, given X-rays to check for broken bones—thankfully, all clear!—and started on pain medication. Once we were able to get his body temperature back up, he also received a few much-needed baths.

He has a long way to go, and his prognosis remains guarded, but tonight he is warm, clean, hydrated, receiving supportive care, and has a fighting chance.

A huge thank you to the City of Amarillo for making the call and giving this little guy a second chance.