Wildlife Sanctuary in Herron Helps Injured Animals
About 25 minutes from Alpena is a sanctuary for rehabilitating wildlife, Nature’s Kingdom Conservation.
Poppy, a hawk, came to them after being caught in someone’s grill. After suffering two broken wings and a severe eye injury, most people would have written this poor guy off. This is exactly what Nature’s Kingdom’s efforts are focused on, birds and other wildlife. “We are 501(3)c, a nonprofit organization dedicated to taking care of the wildlife in our area, the orphans, and the hurt wildlife,” said Michelle Sobek, president of Nature’s Wildlife Conservation.
With spring right around the corner, the conservation group is expecting a lot of baby animal activity. “Baby season’s coming within the next couple of months, which they start trickling in and we rehabilitate any kind of orphaned wildlife from baby owls to baby raccoons. We’ve had bobcats,” said Sobek.
Even though the conservatory will take any injured animal, Sobek has a particular affinity for birds. “I’m a federally licensed bird rehabilitator, we can take any bird from an eagle to a hummingbird,” she said. “We get a lot of injured birds, a lot of injured hawks, and different kinds of raptors.”
One animal population that the conservation organization helps a lot is the local fox. “It’s excellent to have them because they teach the babies that I get in rehab,” said Sobek. “We’ll bottle feed babies to a certain age, and then I’ll take the babies and stick them in here with the fox, and our fox will teach the baby fox all the different attributes of a fox, like digging and stalking prey, and just all the different things that fox needs to know.”
As a nonprofit organization, Nature’s Kingdom Conservatory relies on support from the community for volunteers, supply donations, and monetary contributions. “There’s always opportunities. We welcome the public to help aid us in making our organization grow,” Sobeck said. “We’re willing to teach people and willing to train people in many different aspects. We’re in search of any volunteers that want to help.”
If you are interested in volunteer or donation opportunities, you can call Michelle or Michael Sobek at (989) 727-3893.
