DeKALB – The baby 13-lined ground squirrels would not have survived on their own.

“Firefighters were flushing hydrants in DeKalb when they found six wet ground squirrels in the middle of the street,” said Jon Bockman, who has managed the Wild TAILS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in DeKalb for four years.

The wife of one of the firefighters brought the squirrels to the center. They were among hundreds of animals that Bockman sees at Wild TAILS and its companion center, Oaken Acres Wildlife Center in rural Sycamore, each year. The two centers rehabilitate sick, injured and orphaned wild animals and return them to their natural habitats once they have healed and developed to the stage where they can survive on their own.