Before volunteering for the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley, the Fechtels had never been so close to wild animals.

"Raising hedgehogs is popular in Europe, but that's about it," says Fechtel, a 34-year-old engineer who moved to California from Germany in October of 2000.

The Fechtels have been volunteering for the wildlife center since March of 2002. At the center, they learn to feed baby crows and ducklings. They also learn not to call animals "cute."

"These animals are not pets. We are supposed to respect their wildness," Fechtel says. "That's why we cover the cages with towels and don't talk when we are near them. We don't want them to get used to human beings."

The Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley is a place where the public delivers sick, orphaned or injured birds and mammals. Its mission is to take care of those animals, rehabilitate them, and then release them back into the wild. The center, which recently moved to its new facility inside Penitencia Creek Park in San Jose, celebrates its 10th anniversary in May.

When animals are sent to the center, volunteers ask people where they found the animal so when the animal recovers, the center can release it in its natural habitat. Then volunteers look for signs of shock, dehydration, emaciation and infections and give the animals immediate treatment, including tube feeding, suturing or medication.

Yet Director of Operations Janet Alexander says the majority of the time the animals are "over rescued." The animal's mother most likely is in the area but people do not see her so they pick the baby animal up and take it to the center, she says. She suggests calling the center before picking the animal up.

The animal care coordinator at the center, Carmel de Bertaut, says adult deer and rabbits are away from their young most of the day to avoid drawing predators to them. She says the center's goal is to keep "as many young animals as possible with their parents this year."

It is also a common misconception that birds will abandon their young once humans have touched them, the idea being that the mother will smell humans on her baby. But in fact birds have no sense of smell.

Sometimes people find a mockingbird that is only several weeks old on the ground and think they are abandoned but the parents are still training it on the ground, Alexander says.

Alexander and de Bertaut are two of the organization's founding members. Both helped open the center after working with the Humane Society of Santa Clara Valley, which had to close its wildlife department due to lack of funding.

So a small group of about 15 individuals raised enough money to open the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley in 1993 and staff it with volunteers for three years. Today the center is run by almost 150 volunteers, but it's been able to hire three paid staff members.

With the help of volunteers and staff, the center cares for over 5,000 birds and mammals of more than 100 species each year. It takes in about 100 wild animals daily in summer, the center's peak season.

The center doesn't only care for animals—it also educates the public about conservation issues and sponsors an outreach program that educates students of all ages about animals.

The volunteers say working at the center is a great educational experience. A typical day for volunteers includes feeding baby birds every 30 minutes, washing dishes, washing the beds and mopping the floor.

As a second-year volunteer, Johanna Fechtel is skillful in taking care of different animals. For example, pigeons and doves—unlike finches and mockingbirds—don't open their mouths wide to receive food so it is necessary to tube-feed them.

The featherless nestlings are kept inside strawberry cartons in incubators and fed, via a syringe, a diet consisting of puréed applesauce, baby food and vitamins. Once they grow feathers and become fledglings they are moved to wooden boxes with heat lamps and fed worms.

The birds are fed diets comparable to that which they would have in the wild. The center also strives to maintain the wild characteristics, instincts and tendencies of the mammals.

To keep them wild, the birds are transferred to one of the dozen aviaries outside the center's back door once they have outgrown the room inside.

Last year the release rates were 40 percent for birds of prey and 61 percent for mammals.

But since the center isn't large enough to house the large quantity of animals that come in daily, some volunteers take home squirrels or birds. About 650 Eastern gray and Eastern fox squirrels are taken home from the center. One volunteer takes care of a fawn at his Saratoga home.

Other mammals that come into the center include jack rabbits, bobcats, raccoons, gophers and skunks. The center only accepts native North American species.

Because baby hummingbirds need to be fed every 20 minutes, Alexander takes the birds she cares for everywhere with her, even into movie theaters and restaurants.

When the animals have been rehabilitated or grown enough to sustain themselves, they are released into the wild.

"Most birds move on, like song birds, which are migratory, but pigeons have a homing instinct so they make themselves at home here and often overstay their welcome," Alexander says.

On an annual basis, the center sends reports to the California Department of Fish and Game regarding the well-being of the birds and mammals and to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about its migratory birds.

The California Department of Fish and Game requires that an animal be released within a three-mile radius of where it originally came from. If a group of animals is released at once and came from various places, the center's personnel will choose an area that can best support all the animals' needs.

Johanna Fechtel says she felt a sense of achievement when she released the baby squirrels she raised. Sometimes she had to wake up at night to check on them and feed them

"Getting to release the animals is the most difficult yet the greatest thing," says Johanna, 23. "You just sit there in tears, thinking your babies are leaving you. But it is also rewarding to see their instincts kick in and see them return to the wild."

The Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley is located at 3027 Penitencia Creek Road, inside Penitencia Creek Park. For more information, call 408.928.5850 or visit www.wcsv.org.

—Staff reporter I-chun Che
contributed to this article.