Kind volunteers are knitting cozy nests for rescued wild animals
Katie Deline-Ray wants to help injured wildlife feel a little cozier.
Her global volunteer network, Wildlife Rescue Nests, knits hundreds of tiny nests for birds and mammals who have sustained injuries or lost their habitats in the wild.
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As the animals recover in rehabilitation centers, the nests are an important part of their healing process.
"The nests offer security and warmth, which is essential in rehabilitating wildlife," Deline-Ray told The Dodo.
Deline-Ray currently has around 800 volunteers and 240 wildlife rehabilitation centers on her mailing list, and she hopes the numbers will continue to grow. But, originally, it was just Deline-Ray doing the knitting -- and it all started with an inconvenient injury of her own.
In 2013, Deline-Ray broke her hand, and was briefly stuck at home browsing the Internet. One day, she discovered a live webcam of a hummingbird nest, and in the comments section, she read about a woman who designed rehab nests for hummingbirds in her spare time.
"I thought it was a brilliant idea," Deline-Ray said. Thus, Wildlife Rescue Nests was born.
Now, Deline-Ray and her team make nests for small and medium mammals, birds and bats. For animals who prefer darkness, the team makes "cave" nests, which are designed particularly for cave-dwellers and burrowers.
And since each nest is made by a different artisan, each nest is uniquely colorful and cute.
Deline-Ray hopes to continue expanding her project worldwide, and she's always seeking new volunteers. It's important work -- with every new nest, another animal gets a better chance of successfully re-entering the wild.
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Topics Animals
Chloe was the shopping editor at Mashable. She was also previously a culture reporter. You can follow her on Twitter at @chloebryan.
