Amos Rehabilitation Keep
Striving to rehabilitate and release injured sea turtles and birds found on Mustang and San Jose Islands.
Report Injured Animals
If you see a stranded or nesting sea turtle, call the 24/7 Turtle Hotline: 1-866-TURTLE5.
If you see an injured bird, call the ARK Hotline: (361)749-6793.
If you have an inquiry about mammals or birds in other locations, please refer to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s directory of wildlife rehabilitators for the appropriate organization.
What We Do
Our mission is to rescue and rehabilitate sick and injured coastal wildlife found on San Jose and Mustang Islands including sea turtle and shorebirds, and to return them to their native habitat.
In the last 15 years alone, the ARK has returned 8,678 animals back to the wild!
The Amos Rehabilitation Keep (ARK) has been in operation since 1982 when first founded by Tony Amos. The ARK ensures the successful release of as many animals as possible and works with veterinarians and other wildlife management organizations to use the most up-to-date rehabilitation techniques. The ARK also strives to educate the public about the potential impacts of population growth and urban development on coastal wildlife.
In addition to rehabilitation, the ARK also participates in sea turtle nesting work during Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle nesting season (April 1 – July 15). ARK staff and volunteers patrol our Gulf beaches for turtle tracks and nesting turtles, document turtles and nest sites, and transport eggs to Padre Island National Seashore for incubation. Eggs left on the beach are subject to predation, flooding, and other hazards, so all nests are relocated to the incubation facility. 2025 set a record nesting year for Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles, both for the ARK’s response area, and for the entire Texas coast.
The ARK also documents sea turtles and marine mammals through our long association with the national and state stranding networks (Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network [STSSN] and the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network [TMMSN].
Additionally, the ARK is home to an Oiled Wildlife Facility and staff maintain HAZWOPER and Oiled Wildlife Response training to perform aid in the event of oil spills.
When sea turtles are ready for release, the ARK offers multiple opportunities for public sea turtle releases throughout the year. Please watch our social media pages for announcements of these events. Outside of the winter months, Green Sea Turtles are released into seagrass beds in the bays so public releases may also be limited during the summer.
We Are Counting On You
Help Amos Rehabilitation Keep Saving Lives
Have You Seen a Banded Pelican, GULL OR HERON?
Bands applied at the ARK will be white text on a maroon or red band on the left leg (two letters and a number) and a metal band on the right leg. Only one of these codes is required to report the band.
Help Us Track the Data By
- Recording the band code and color
- Recording the date and location of the sighting
report the sighting By
- Filling out online form (preferred): www.reportband.gov
- Emailing us at: aorgill@utexas.edu
- Upload to: iNaturalist.com
Thank you to all who report banded birds and provide us with important data regarding movement and rehabilitation success!
SEA TURTLE COLD-STUNNING
Sea turtles in shallow bays are affected when water temperatures drop below 50F. Almost all of these turtles affected are Green Sea Turtles which forage on the seagrasses in the bays. As sea turtles are reptiles, their body temperature changes with the temperature of the environment, leading to hypothermia when the water gets below this threshold. Sea turtles are rescued by permitted responders, slowly warmed and rehabilitated, and then released into the warmer Gulf waters to prevent them from being affected should the temperatures drop again within the given season.
How You Can Help
- Report stranded and deceased sea turtles to the 24/7 sea turtle hotline: 1-866-TURTLE-5
- Be on the lookout and exercise caution when boating during cold-stunning events as turtles may be floating at the surface
Most Recent Cold-Stunning Event
- January 25-28, 2026
- 167 sea turtles handled at the ARK
- Released January 29, 2026
Reptiles are ectothermic (cold-blooded) which means they cannot regulate their own body temperature
mass BIRD stranding response
The ARK is equipped with new state-of-the-art facilities and large aviaries care for large numbers of birds during mass stranding or natural disasters. On November 1, 2025, a hail storm crossed over several rookery islands, most severely affecting Shamrock Island in Corpus Christi Bay. Over the next week, with the help of many rescue partners, the ARK took in 418 surviving birds affected by the storm, mostly Brown Pelicans, with injuries ranging from fractures to ocular injuries to severe bruising.
Why is this Important?
- The Eastern Brown Pelican almost went extinct in the 1970s due to the use of DDT. This species was only delisted from the endangered species list in 2009.
- We have confirmed through post-release resightings that many of these rehabilitated birds are exhibiting normal pelican behavior in the wild, with many continuing on their migration south.
Brown Pelicans in rehabilitation at the ARK following the November 1 hail storm