Saskatoon wildlife rehab centre working on reality show

A wildlife rehabilitation centre in Saskatchewan is getting thrust into the spotlight with a new docuseries called “Staying Wild.”

Cameras have been following the workers at Living Sky Wildlife Rehabilitation all summer, according to executive director Jan Shadick.

Shadick said the journey for the series actually started years ago with one of the producers, Jackie Kripki.

“It has been, I would say, a longstanding dream and effort on her part and she just hung in there like a junkyard dog and it has finally come to fruition and the dream is happening,” said Shadick.

The six-episode series will show the centre helping and rehabilitating wild animals in the middle of Saskatoon. Shadick said the centre’s staff feeds baby birds and mammals, helps ducks swim and takes care of injured hawks.

The centre takes in about 2,100 animals a year and about 2,000 of them are birds. The rest are different kinds of mammals like foxes, porcupines and ground squirrels.

“This year we had that really interesting experience of having a baby badger,” Shadick said, calling the experience a learning journey.

It hasn’t always been easy for the workers to do their jobs with the cameras around but Shadick said she was quite pleased with how subtle and respectful the camera crews have been.

“One of the things that was very clear from the beginning is that the animals come first and so there has been no compromise in terms of quality of care (or) animal work that we’ve been doing,” Shadick said.

Shadick said there were times when the crews have been almost invisible which she said was phenomenal.

“The animals take up a huge amount of our time, pretty much 110 per cent of our time, and so the camera crew has been able to adapt to that and really just very quietly follow us around to be able to get shots that they need,” said Shadick.

It’s been an interesting summer to do the show, Shadick said, because staff had to contend with bird flu. It added more complications to their work and Shadick said the camera crews had to join them in the biosecurity measures.

“So they participated in the whole process of changing shoes and changing clothes if they need to, and all of those things,” explained Shadick.

The show is expected to air on CityTV in the spring. Shadick said she hopes people will see the animals and recognize the value of wildlife when they see the show.

“So that instead of simply getting rid of animals they will make different decisions and learn how to live in harmony with our wild neighbours,” she said.

“The exposure for the centre and any donations people want to give would be fantastic too.”