Malibu Nonprofit's Live-Streaming Videos of Baby Animals Entertain and Educate

Coast and Canyon Wildlife, the only state-licensed wildlife rehabilitation facility headquartered in Malibu, is celebrating its third year by offering 24/7 live-streaming video feeds of its orphaned baby animals. 

Among the young creatures recently captured on the webcams at www.CoastCanyon.org were a California gray squirrel and a fox squirrel that live together, allowing viewers to see the differences in the related species. Another camera showed California ground squirrels that made their home in the mouth of a cloth octopus placed in the cage. A third camera showed a two-week-old baby skunk someone found in the backyard.

"Our 24/7 webcams have had over 500,000 hits," said Marcia Rybak, a Malibu resident and founder of the nonprofit CCW. "If you like animals, there's always something to see."

CCW takes in more than 1,000 animals each year, focusing its efforts on orphaned baby mammals—particularly squirrels, opossums and skunks (it is one of the few wildlife rescue groups in Southern California that accepts skunks). Nine volunteers work under Rybak's supervision, providing animal care on their own properties. More volunteers will soon be added to the program. The job requires multiple hand feedings each day.

Rybak said her wildlife webcams are unexpectedly providing a free side benefit as an educational service to the public.

"We've received many letters from teachers and students who have incorporated our webcam stream into their classrooms, and are able to ask online questions about the animals [while they're watching]," Rybak said. "Adults also tell us they've learned about wildlife through our cams. Watching baby squirrels learning to crack open nuts or baby skunks wrestling with each other like kittens is a new experience for most people."

Each streaming video has a chat option, and Rybak has learned from her viewers that "with all the depressing news on TV, they've found our cams to be the perfect substitute. And best of all, it's free."  

Even convalescents have contacted Rybak to tell her "watching the antics of the babies on-screen makes them smile and has helped them through difficult times."

In addition to the streaming videos, CCW has recently released several YouTube videos with the help of Kim Barker, whose “squirrel-cam” webcasting from Santa Monica on Ustream called Bad Manors Squirrel Diner has become a cult hit.  

"I started it about three years ago on a whim," said Barker of Bad Manors. "I was feeding squirrels on my deck and thought it would be fun to put a webcam at the feeder. To keep my online audience entertained while they were waiting for a squirrel to show up, I put out a toy alligator. Things slowly spiraled out of control [to the point where I was creating] a different elaborate 'set design' for them every day."

Diner’s strong following reached a point that it was generating income through the sale of merchandise. Barker decided the profits should go to wildlife rescue.  

"When I found Marcia's site for CCW online and realized that she was helping the same kind of squirrels that entertain us daily at the Diner, I knew it was a perfect fit," Barker said. 

Her alliance with CCW grew as Barker realized how much time Rybak devotes to the effort. She often works until 4 a.m., feeding the animals. At the time, all of her expenses were coming out of her own pocket, which Barker "just felt was wrong." 

"We started broadcasting the Bad Manors Squirrel Diner from CCW and held our first 'Squirrelathon' fundraiser," Barker said. "From there, it's grown into CCW running its own broadcasts."  

One of the webcams captured three orphaned baby squirrels that viewers watched from the time they were barely recognizable as squirrels. Rybak fed them by hand each day.  

"When it came time for them to be released back into the wild, I wanted to make a video so all the viewers who'd become attached to them could see the big day," Barker said. "And it showed how much work Marcia and her fellow rehabbers do to save each life.”  

The video of the orphaned squirrels' release is attached to this article.