Found a Wild Animal in Broward or Palm Beach County? Here's Exactly What to Do

Jump to a section

• Does the animal actually need help?
• What to do in the first ten minutes
• Where to take it
• Sea turtles
• Muscovy ducks
• Who to call for what
• Frequently asked questions

You're taking out the trash and there's a baby bird on the driveway. A hawk is sitting on your fence and won't fly off. Your dog just came inside with a possum in his mouth. An iguana fell out of a tree onto your patio and isn't moving.

It happens constantly here. South Florida is one of the most wildlife-dense suburban places in the country, and most of us have no idea who to call when something goes wrong. So we made the list.

Save this page. Better yet, put the two main numbers in your phone right now:

First question: does the animal actually need help?

This is the part almost everyone gets wrong. Every spring and summer, wildlife hospitals across both counties take in hundreds of perfectly healthy babies that were "rescued" by well-meaning neighbors. As the Sawgrass Nature Center puts it, humans are a young wild animal's last hope, never its best hope.

Leave it alone if:

• It's a fledgling bird. Fully feathered, no fluffy down, looks like a slightly awkward adult, hopping around on the ground. This is normal. Fledglings leave the nest and learn to fly from the ground up, and it can take a few days. The parents are still feeding it, usually from a branch you can't see.
• It's a baby rabbit five inches or longer with its eyes open and ears standing up. It's self-sufficient. Also worth knowing: mother rabbits only feed their young at night, so an unattended nest during the day is not an abandoned nest.
• It's a squirrel or raccoon baby that's warm, uninjured, and ant-free. Mothers routinely retrieve fallen young and often keep backup nest sites. Give her time.
• It's a duckling walking well with no injuries. Look for a nearby brood of similar-age ducklings and place it near them. Some pecking is normal.
• It's an adult animal that's simply present. A raccoon crossing your yard in daylight is not automatically sick. A mother with small babies will forage during the day.

Bring it in if you see any of these:

• It was caught by a dog or cat (assume internal injury even with no visible wound, and never just let it go)
• Visible bleeding
• An obviously broken limb
• Featherless and on the ground
• Shivering
• Found next to a dead animal
• It's been crying for several hours
• It's wandering with no direction, as though lost and disoriented

If you're on the fence, call. Every one of the centers below will talk you through it over the phone, and they would much rather answer a question than receive a healthy baby.

The flow charts worth bookmarking

Busch Wildlife Sanctuary publishes two decision charts that answer the two questions that come up most often here. Screenshot them. Baby season runs hard from spring through late summer, and these two scenarios account for an enormous share of the calls both counties' hospitals field.

Found a baby bird?

Found a baby bunny or baby squirrel?

Charts courtesy of Busch Wildlife Sanctuary, Jupiter.

What to do in the first ten minutes

• Your safety first. Even small animals bite and scratch hard, and a frightened bird will aim for your eyes. Never handle an adult animal without talking to a wildlife professional first.
• Contain it if you can do so safely. A pet carrier is ideal. A cardboard box works too: punch air holes from the inside out before the animal goes in, big enough for your thumb but no bigger. A plastic bin with a towel or vented cardboard lid also works. Line the bottom with paper towels, a bath towel, or an old shirt.
• Use thick gloves. Drop a towel or pillowcase over the animal and scoop it up gently.
• Do not feed it. Do not give it water. This is the single most important instruction on this page. Wrong food causes choking, digestive damage, and aspiration pneumonia. Most injured animals are in shock, and force-feeding a shocky animal can kill it.
• Warm, dark, quiet. Put the container somewhere away from kids, pets, TVs, and radios. Keep it out of direct sun, off the AC vent, and away from heat.
• Drive it in, radio off, talking to a minimum. Our voices are extremely stressful to wild animals, and a stressed injured animal is one that may not make it.

Specific situations:

• Fish hook or fishing line: Do not remove it. There may be additional hooks internally, and pulling can cause far worse damage. Bring the animal in with the hook in place.
• Bird hit your window: If it's somewhere safe with no cats, dogs, or children around, leave it and watch. If it's active and vocal after an hour, release it where you found it. Bring it in if there's blood, a limp body part, or no improvement after 15 minutes.
• Dead opossum: Check the pouch. Females hit by cars in spring and summer frequently have live young inside. Remove the babies, keep them warm, and call right away.
• Baby opossum: Smaller than seven inches (roughly middle finger to wrist) needs a rehabber. Larger than seven inches, moving well and uninjured, is independent and can be left alone.
• Nest with eggs: Leave it unless it's in immediate danger. Call for advice.

Two things you should not do, ever: Do not try to raise it yourself. It is illegal in Florida to possess native wildlife without a rehabilitation permit, and the survival rate for homemade care is dismal. And do not trap and relocate wildlife on your own. Relocation is heavily restricted in Florida, and moving an animal usually kills it slowly instead of quickly.

Where to take it

South Florida Wildlife Center

Broward's main wildlife hospital

• Address: 3200 SW 4th Ave, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33315
• Phone or text: (954) 524-4302
• Email: info@southfloridawildlifecenter.org
• Website: southfloridawildlifecenter.org
• Drop-off hours: 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Sunday. Open 365 days a year including weekends and holidays. Admissions staff respond during those same hours.
• Cost: No admission fee. Donations strongly encouraged.
• Takes: A wide variety of native birds, mammals, and reptiles.
• Does not take: Marine mammals and sea turtles, Muscovy ducks, peafowl and chickens, domestic pets, and exotic or non-native species. They can refer you to private avian vets for Muscovies and peafowl.

Worth knowing: They have night cages for after-hours drop-off, though they'd rather you keep the animal contained and warm at home overnight and bring it first thing in the morning. They no longer pick animals up due to funding, so plan to drive it yourself. If you can't, they suggest ordering a Lyft or Uber with your name and phone number written on the box, asking a neighbor, or calling to see whether a volunteer transporter is available.

When you call, have ready: your name, photos of the animal, and the exact address, city, and zip where you found it.

Follow-up: You'll get a patient ID number at drop-off. Use their online patient update form and expect a reply within 14 days. One request per patient, please, so the emergency line stays open.

Sawgrass Nature Center & Wildlife Hospital

Coral Springs, Parkland, Coconut Creek, and northwest Broward

• Address: 3000 Sportsplex Dr, Coral Springs, FL 33065 (in Sportsplex Park, off Sample Road just east of the Sawgrass Expressway, between Coral Glades High and Sawgrass Springs Middle)
• Phone: (954) 752-WILD, which is (954) 752-9453
• Email: info@sawgrassnaturecenter.org
• Website: sawgrassnaturecenter.org
• Wildlife hospital hours: Tuesday through Friday 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Closed Mondays.
• Nature center hours: Tuesday through Friday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Also closed Mondays.
• Cost: Free for wildlife intake. Nature center admission is $5 adults, $3 kids 5 and up, free under 5, free for military families.
• Takes: Sick, injured, and orphaned native mammals, birds, and reptiles. They treat roughly 750 animals a year at no charge.
• Does not take: Muscovy ducks (non-native, and state and federal release rules prohibit it).

Critical detail: The nature center stays open later than the hospital. Once the hospital closes, intakes stop until the next business day. They also do not monitor voicemail outside business hours, so if you call at 8 p.m. nobody is getting that message tonight. Ask for the licensed rehabber when you call.

This is a small nonprofit that receives no city or county funding, which is remarkable given how much of northwest Broward it covers.

Busch Wildlife Sanctuary

Palm Beach County's main wildlife hospital

• Address: 17855 Rocky Pines Road, Jupiter, FL 33478
• Phone: (561) 575-3399
• After-hours hotline: (561) 599-0071
• Patient updates: updates@buschwildlife.org
• Website: buschwildlife.org/rescue
• Drop-off hours: 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., seven days a week.
• After hours: Occasionally accommodated if a volunteer is available. Call the main number and you'll be routed to a staffed emergency line.
• Takes: Native Florida species. This is one of the largest wildlife intake and hospital operations in the state.

Worth knowing: They're the source of the baby bird, baby bunny, and baby squirrel flow charts higher up this page, and their rescue page hosts the full versions. If you're in Boca, Delray, or Boynton and staring at a nestling, work through those before you drive anywhere.

For patient updates, email with the drop-off date, animal type, name on the intake form, and animal ID number. Expect several days, since they're managing a very high patient load.

Pelican Harbor Seabird Station

The 24-hour option, best for south Broward

• Address: 1279 NE 79th St, Miami, FL 33138 (on the 79th Street Causeway, in Pelican Harbor Marina)
• Phone or text: (305) 751-9840. Text line: (786) 459-9155.
• Website: pelicanharbor.org
• Staffed hours: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily. Closes at 1:00 p.m. on July 4th, Thanksgiving, and December 25th.
• Drop-off: 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, via secure after-hours drop-off cages.
• Takes: All native birds, mammals, and reptiles.

Why it's on a Broward and Palm Beach list: It's technically Miami-Dade, but it's the only facility in the region with genuine round-the-clock drop-off. If you're in Hollywood, Hallandale, or Pembroke Pines at 11 p.m. with an injured bird, this is a shorter drive than you think. There's an online patient intake form to fill out at drop-off.

Sea turtles: a completely separate system

Sea turtles are federally protected, and no general wildlife hospital will take one. Do not touch, move, or attempt to rescue a stranded sea turtle. Handling one without a permit is illegal.

Call FWC first at 1-888-404-FWCC (3922). You can also dial *FWC or #FWC from a cell phone. Then call the appropriate local responder:

Gumbo Limbo Nature Center (southern Palm Beach County)

• 1801 N Ocean Blvd, Boca Raton, FL 33432
• Main number: (561) 544-8605
• 24-Hour Sea Turtle Rescue Hotline: (561) 212-8691
• The Boca Raton Sea Turtle Conservation Program responds to dead and injured sea turtles across southern Palm Beach County.
• Hatchlings: Never put a stranded hatchling in the water. Place it in a container with damp sand (not water) and bring it to the cooler marked "Hatchling Drop-off" outside the front doors. Staff check it frequently, day and night.
• Gumbo Limbo takes sea turtles only. No birds, no raccoons, no freshwater turtles or tortoises.

Loggerhead Marinelife Center (northern Palm Beach County)

• 14200 US Highway 1, Juno Beach, FL 33408
• 24-Hour Sea Turtle Rescue Line: (561) 603-0211 (emergencies only, meaning dead or live stranded turtles, not nesting questions or status updates)
• Hatchlings: Same protocol. Damp sand, no water, into the 24-hour hatchling drop-off container at the front entrance.
• Hooked a turtle off the pier? Reel in the slack and keep the turtle at the surface. Never lift it out of the water by the line. Use a pier net slid underneath it, move it slowly to the beach out of the surf, and keep it shaded or covered with a wet towel. You can trim excess line but leave one to two feet attached.

Washed-out eggs: Leave them on the beach. Once an egg leaves the nest it is no longer viable.

Muscovy ducks: nobody else takes them

The ducks with the red faces are non-native, which means the licensed wildlife hospitals legally cannot rehabilitate and release them. That leaves one option in Broward.

Duck Haven

• 2627 NW 61st Ave, Margate, FL 33063
• (954) 979-5044
• duckhaven.net
• Florida's only rescue dedicated exclusively to Muscovy ducks, operating for more than 40 years on donations alone, with no government or humane society funding. They rehabilitate and relocate ducks to vetted private lakes.

Please call before you drive over. This is a tiny volunteer operation, their founder passed away in December 2025, and they have publicly said their funding situation is precarious. If they can't help, both wildlife hospitals maintain networks of private avian veterinarians who will treat Muscovies.

Smaller and specialty rehabbers

These are mostly small, home-based, or appointment-only operations that appear on the Palm Beach County Parks referral list. Always call first. Hours vary, and many are one or two people volunteering their time.

For the complete state list, search "FWC Licensed Wildlife Rehabilitators" on myfwc.com. It's organized by county and by which species each rehabber is permitted to accept.

Who to call for what: quick reference

Note that county animal services in both counties handle dogs and cats only. They are not a wildlife resource.

The situations everyone in South Florida runs into

There's a gator in my lake. Alligators live here. That's the whole thing. If one is genuinely a safety concern, call FWC at 1-888-404-3922. Otherwise, keep pets leashed and away from the water's edge, especially at dawn and dusk, and don't feed it. Ever. A fed gator is a dead gator.

I saw a coyote. They're established across South Florida, all the way to Key West, and they do well in suburbia. Removing individuals actually increases breeding in the remaining population, so trapping is counterproductive. Stop feeding wildlife and outdoor cats, secure your trash, keep small dogs on a short leash at night, and keep cats indoors.

Iguanas are eating my landscaping. Try motion-sensor sprinklers, wind chimes (hanging CDs on fishing line work), a cayenne-pepper-and-water spray on affected areas, and sheet metal collars around tree trunks. Native plants are generally the least appealing to them. Never spray an animal directly.

There's a raccoon in my attic. Bright lights left on for 24 hours, loud talk radio, and ammonia-soaked rags in the attic space usually convince her to move out. Outside, ammonia in a spray bottle on walls and fences she frequents helps. Be patient if it's a mother with babies, because she can only carry one at a time and may need three or four days to move them all. Once everyone's out, seal the entry points.

Raccoons keep getting in my pool. A floating fake alligator head near the steps, or spike strips along the pool edge.

I found a bat. Do not handle it. Rabies risk. Call a wildlife hospital immediately.

I found a snake and I don't know what it is. Don't try to identify it up close and don't handle it. Keep your distance and call a professional.

I found a dead animal. If it's an opossum, check the pouch for live young first. Otherwise, you can call a trapper (paid service) or double-bag it for the trash. Dead animals in the road or public right-of-way are usually your city's public works department.

Can I feed the ducks bread? No. Bread and rice have no nutritional value for waterfowl and make them sick, which makes them more likely to end up injured. If you want to help wildlife in your yard, plant native trees and shrubs.

A bird at my feeder looks sick. Take the feeder down temporarily to stop disease spread, then call for advice.

The bottom line

Two numbers, one for each county, and one rule: warm, dark, quiet, no food, no water, and get it to a professional.

• Broward: South Florida Wildlife Center, (954) 524-4302
• Palm Beach: Busch Wildlife Sanctuary, (561) 575-3399

Every organization on this list is a nonprofit. Not one of them charges you to take in an animal, and most of them get little or no government funding. If you've ever used one of them, or you'd like to be able to, they all accept donations, supplies from published wish lists, and volunteers.

Hours and intake policies change, particularly during spring and summer baby season when these facilities are overwhelmed. Call ahead when you can.

More from The Friendly Scoop

🔗 Hurricane preparedness guide - Storms displace wildlife on a scale nothing else does. Downed nests, flooded burrows, and disoriented birds spike in the days after a system passes, so it's worth knowing both plans at once.

🔗 Broward County event calendar and Palm Beach County event calendar - Several of the organizations on this page host public releases, beach cleanups, and family workshops throughout the year.

🔗 Kids eat free guide - Because the drive back from Fort Lauderdale or Jupiter tends to end with everyone hungry.

🔗 Our city guides - Neighborhood-by-neighborhood coverage across Broward and Palm Beach County.

Sources

Every hour, phone number, and intake policy on this page came from the organization's own published materials. Facility hours were verified in August 2026.

Wildlife hospitals and rescues

• South Florida Wildlife Center, "Found an Animal?" and "Wildlife Frequently Asked Questions" (southfloridawildlifecenter.org)
• Sawgrass Nature Center & Wildlife Hospital, homepage hours cards, "Wildlife FAQ's," and "Get Involved" (sawgrassnaturecenter.org)
• Busch Wildlife Sanctuary, "Rescue & Rehabilitation" (buschwildlife.org/rescue)
• Pelican Harbor Seabird Station, "What We Do" and "Contact Us" (pelicanharbor.org)
• Duck Haven (duckhaven.net), plus Margate Talk reporting on the organization and its founder

Sea turtles

• City of Boca Raton, Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, "Strandings" and "Injured Wildlife" (myboca.us)
• Loggerhead Marinelife Center, "Contact" and "Report an Injured Sea Turtle" (marinelife.org)

Agencies and referral lists

• Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, "Injured and Orphaned Wildlife" and the Licensed Wildlife Rehabilitators list, searchable by county and permitted species (myfwc.com)
• Palm Beach County Parks and Recreation, Daggerwing Nature Center, "Local Wildlife Rehabilitation Facilities for Injured/Orphaned Animals" (discover.pbcgov.org)
• Broward County Animal Care, "Nuisance Wildlife" and "Reporting Animal Issues" (broward.org)
• Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control (pbcgov.org)

Spotted something out of date, or know of a rehabber we missed? Let us know and we'll update this page.