California Department of Fish and Wildlife
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Wildlife Rehabilitation Education

Continuing education is an important factor in maintaining a professional knowledge base for a wildlife rehabilitator. Since wildlife rehabilitation is such a broad and complex field, CDFW requires that all wildlife rehabilitation personnel, professional and volunteer, satisfactorily complete one Department approved wildlife rehabilitation training session each year. The minimum for a training session is two hours.

Training may include sessions on wildlife rehabilitation methods, ecology, wildlife conservation, wildlife management, wildlife identification, wildlife capture and restraint, wildlife laws and regulations, veterinary medicine, International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council (IWRC), National Wildlife Rehabilitation Association (NWRA), or California Council for Wildlife Rehabilitation (CCWR) symposiums, wildlife seminars, college courses in biology or wildlife, internet courses dealing with wildlife, local facility training, regional wildlife rehabilitation meetings, or other approved training.

Approval for facilitating a training session that counts towards the training requirement can be done by filling out a Training Proposal Form (PDF) and sending the form to the CDFW Wildlife Rehabilitation Coordinator a minimum of 60 days before the training class is scheduled.

The following links are provided to assist wildlife rehabilitators in finding educational opportunities: