What are the opening hours?

Monday 8am - 4pm Tuesday 8am - 4pm Wednesday 8am - 4pm Thursday 8am - 4pm Friday 8am - 4pm Saturday 8am - 4pm Sunday 8am - 4pm

Salish Wildlife Rescue

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Friday Harbor, WA
Salish Wildlife Rescue

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Salish Wildlife Rescue is a wildlife rehabilitation center serving San Juan, Skagit and Island counties. Our patients suffer from a range of different ailments.

If you find an injured or orphaned animal, please call us directly at 360-378-5000. We are open for calls and wildlife intakes seven days a week. Wolf Hollow Wildlife Rehabilitation Center cares for a broad range of animals including birds, mammals, and an occasional reptile or amphibian. We do not have a veterinarian on staff, but work closely with vets here on San Juan Island, Anacortes, and occasionally with other vet clinics in San Juan and Skagit Counties. This includes relatively healthy young animals that have been orphaned or separated from their parents, to animals that have severe injuries or broken bones. A large proportion of the animals we treat need care as a result of human activities. They have been hit by cars, attacked by dogs or cats, poisoned, shot, flown into windows or power lines, caught in fences, or entangled in nets.

10/31/2026

Trick or treat!👻

🪱For you a bowl of mealworms might be a trick, but for an American Robin a bowl of mealworms is definitely a treat.

These creepy crawly critters are the backbone of rehabilitation. Used from main diets to enrichment sources, they are vital to the care of our patients. In
2026 alone we spent just under $2,000 and expect to need more in the coming year. We have started our own mealworm colony to help with the demand.

💓Consider giving Salish Wildlife a treat this Halloween and donate to our mealworm fund.

Happy Halloween!🎃

Follow the link below to our donation
page and select Mealworms from the
dropdown.
https://wolfhollowwildlife.networkforgood.com/

10/24/2026

Happy Bat-urday!🦇 October 24-31 is Bat Week, an international celebration designed to bring awareness to bat health and conservation (visit batweek.org to learn more). It’s no coincidence that this week also coincides with Halloween….bats are an iconic part of most Halloween celebrations, however their safety is often overshadowed by all the ghostly festivities.

Here’s a few tips and tricks from Bat Conservation International on how to keep the spooky spirit alive while still protecting bats and other wildlife:

💡Bats are very sensitive to light! To minimize the impacts on bats and other nocturnal wildlife, opt for motion-activated lights. Keep light displays close to your home, and turn off when you go to bed.
🕸️Skip the fake webbing. Stretchy artificial webs pose real dangers to bats, birds, and other wildlife. Bats and birds are easily tangled up in the strands where they risk starvation or weather exposure.
⚠️Unfortunately, some of the unique traits of bats make them particularly vulnerable to exploitation like the taxidermy and oddities trade. Spread the word to help protect bats and look for ethical alternatives when possible.

Thank you for looking out for our nocturnal neighbors this Halloween. Enjoy this Salish Wildlife ASMR compilation of our bat patients getting their fill of insects as they grow stronger for release!🪱

10/16/2026

How is animal welfare included in wildlife rehabilitation?🐾

Here at Salish Wildlife, we follow the Five Freedoms. Originally established by Britain’s Farm Animal Welfare Council in 1965, these standards have been adapted and adopted into most institutions that care for any animal, domestic or wild. These are the pillars that outline the conditions required to protect an animal’s physical and mental well-being.

🥬Freedom from hunger and thirst: access to fresh clean water and a diet that maintains the animals health. Diets are specialized to species care needs, such as life stages or emaciation.
🦝Freedom to express normal behavior: Providing sufficient space, proper enrichment, and the company of other animals of their own kind. Reinforcing natural behaviors like human avoidance and foraging, tailored to species specific survival traits.
💚Freedom from fear and distress: Ensuring conditions and treatment that avoid mental suffering. Psychological stress can quickly turn into physical illness. Humans are a stressor for wildlife, by interacting with the animal only when necessary for care stress levels stay low.
🪺Freedom from discomfort: Provide the appropriate environment including shelter and comfortable resting area. Enclosures tailored to species needs; temperature(nestlings), hides, appropriate branches.
🩺Freedom from pain, injury, and disease: Prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment. In rehabilitation, this includes humane euthanasia if the prolonged outcome would require lifetime care.

Every time we take in an animal for care these 5 freedoms are always in the back of our minds. Species needs, care requirements, diagnosis, and patient attitude are all factors considered and revisited while the animal is in care.

10/07/2026

Lights out Washington! We are reaching the peak of the fall migration. Every year, billions of birds migrate north in the spring and south in the fall, the majority of them fly at night, navigating with the night sky. However, as they pass over big cities, suburbs or towns on their way, they can become disoriented by bright artificial lights and skyglow, often causing them to collide with buildings or windows.

While lights can throw birds off their migration paths, bird fatalities are more directly caused by the amount of energy the birds waste flying around and calling out in confusion. The exhaustion can then leave them vulnerable to other urban threats. The good news is you can help!

How to Contribute to Lights Out
🌟Turn off exterior decorative lighting
🌟Extinguish pot and flood-lights
🌟Substitute strobe lighting wherever possible
🌟Reduce atrium lighting wherever possible
🌟Turn off interior lighting especially on higher stories
🌟Substitute task and area lighting for workers staying late or pull window coverings
🌟Down-shield exterior lighting to eliminate horizontal glare and all light directed upward
🌟Install automatic motion sensors and controls wherever possible
🌟When converting to new lighting, assess the quality and quantity of light needed, avoiding over-lighting with newer, brighter technology

10/02/2026

Happy National Raccoon Day! 🦝🎉

Raccoons are famous (or perhaps infamous) for their dexterous paws , which is reflected in their name across a variety of languages. The term “raccoon” is an English adaptation of one or more Native American words roughly translating to “animal who rubs, scrubs or scratches with its hands”. This etymology is reflected in Spanish and French as well! 🙌🏼

Looking at these videos, it’s no wonder raccoons are known for their “grabby hands”. They have an increased number of nerves on their hands that allow them to “see” objects in complete darkness, making them specially adapted for the night. 🌜

However, being nocturnal does not mean they are only active at night! Raccoons can be seen during most times of the day. Similar to cats, who may prefer to nap all day and be playful and active at night, Raccoons will spend the hottest parts of the day sleeping or resting in their den, but may be exploring or foraging when the weather suits them. ⛅

Sometimes we refer to them as “cats with hands”, for how behaviorally and intellectually similar they are to cats. As much as they remind us of cats, they are more closely related to dogs, and even more so to weasels! Raccoons are incredibly intelligent and curious animals, and for that reason we are celebrating this native species on their special day! ✨🦝✨

09/25/2026

Today is 9-25 (nine to five), a day to remember and celebrate Dolly Parton. Aside from her music, Dolly was known for her generosity and love for animals…especially Bald Eagles! In 1991, Dolly began collaborating with the American Eagle Foundation supporting lifelong care for eagles unable to return to the wild, while also advancing raptor rehabilitation, and conservation education. Her efforts to preserve the Bald Eagle even earned her the Partnership Award from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2003.💚

Salish Wildlife Rescue is proud to care for these incredible creatures, including five Bald Eagle patients in 2026 alone! Check out this video of patient #26-230 enjoying night life and stretching their wings after being moved from quarantine to an outdoor aviary.🦅

09/16/2026

If you are subscribed to our newsletter, you saw that our wonderful maintenance manager Mark Billington is retiring! 🥂

Mark started working for Wolf Hollow Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, now Salish Wildlife Rescue, in 2008. For eighteen years, he slowly transformed the wildlife enclosures at the center. He oversaw the rebuilding of the magnificent eagle flight, the maintenance building, the new Racc Shac and the diving duck enclosure.🦆 Not to mention the dedicated work to maintaining the Harbor Seal pool filtration system, that was a herculean task each summer. He is leaving large boots to fill! Deep thanks for all your devotion to helping wildlife heal in your wonderfully constructed enclosures.

You will be fondly remembered, enjoy your retirement🫶 Swipe to see a few of our 2026 enclosure upgrades, courtesy of Mark!

Address

284 Boyce Road
Friday Harbor, WA
98250

Opening Hours

Monday	8am - 4pm
Tuesday	8am - 4pm
Wednesday	8am - 4pm
Thursday	8am - 4pm
Friday	8am - 4pm
Saturday	8am - 4pm
Sunday	8am - 4pm

Telephone

+13603785000

Website

http://salishwildliferescue.org/

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