Antler Ridge Wildlife Sanctuary
Antler Ridge Wildlife Sanctuary rescues over 1,000 injured, ill, and orphaned wildlife a year from the northern New Jersey area, then rehabilitates them with the intention of releasing them back to the wild.
While it doesn’t have public visiting hours (remember, this is a rehab, not a zoo. These are wild animals.), I was invited to come by and donate my services to ideally help attract potential donors through quality photography of the facilities and their guests!
Its guests are primarily wild mammals that are indigenous to the area, like grey squirrels, raccoons, possums, and the occasional porcupine), though a handful of farm animals also inhabit the secluded 120-acre farmland in the New Jersey woods.
If you’d like to learn more about Antler Ridge Wildlife Sanctuary, or if you’d like to donate or volunteer, check out their website.
I made friends with this piebald deer (not an albino deer — note the brown eyes and patches on its coat) who came to the sanctuary with cleft feet. He was given corrective surgery to be able to walk properly again.
This baby grey squirrel was being nursed to health until it could fend for itself in the wild.
Mr. “Trouble” was anything but.
Possums certainly get a bad rep in this area, but I couldn’t help but feel badly for this one. It was shot multiple times and left to die.
Freddie the Goat wears a bell around his neck so his pen-mate, a sheep born without eyes, can find her food.
When all of the other baby squirrels started turning grey, Filbert’s white fur and vibrant blue eyes stood out to the sanctuary staff. He is not an albino squirrel, but an extremely rare mutation of an eastern grey squirrel (which are quite common to the area). Here, he’s playing with one of his brothers in a large outdoor enclosure.