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 Wildlife Protection and Rehabilitation |
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June 2009 Wildlife Protection and Rehabilitation by Valeri Wade Valeri owns the Wild Bird Chalet and also ran a section of Fourth Corner Nurseries for nine years. She has a bachelor’s degree in environmental education. Valeri can be heard on a semi-monthly radio show (11 a.m. on the first and third Saturday of each month) on KGMI, AM790. You see the poor, “abandoned” baby bird out in the middle of the lawn. Your mind fills with visions of the neighbor’s cat pouncing on it, toying with it, then carrying it off proudly in its mouth. What to do? Do you race out, scoop it up, then wonder where to put it? Stick it in a box while you go dig for worms? How about looking in the yellow pages under “birds”? Before you do anything else, stop and watch. Raising babies requires a huge investment. Few animals will abandon a healthy baby. Protective parents are probably guarding that bird you see on the ground. They may even be dive-bombing the intruder. Go out and shoo away the neighbor’s cat or grab your own cat. You could even keep it inside for the couple of days those young birds need. Fledgling robins leave the nest before their flight feathers are fully formed. Believe it or not, hopping around is safer than being in the nest. At least they have a chance to get away if a predator comes after them. Whatcom County is fortunate enough to have a center that will treat any injured or orphaned wild animal. Northwest Wildlife Rehabilitation Center was established in 2000. Their goal is to rehabilitate wildlife and return these animals to the wild. They admit around 1,000 animals and answer more than 3,500 calls per year. May and June are the busiest months, mostly due to orphans. They cannot, by law, touch a healthy, wild animal, because they are not a rescue organization. Visit their Web site before you have a wildlife emergency, because sometimes the best way to save a wild animal is to leave it alone. Invisibility is the only means many babies have of protecting themselves. When the ground-nesting killdeer stand still, they disappear against a gravel background. Fawns are dappled like shade and will remain still when you walk up to them. If they are alone, mom is probably nearby, grabbing a bite to eat. Bunnies may appear abandoned, unless you know that mom only returns to the nest at dawn and dusk. A lot of parents are too cautious to approach while humans are around. Is the Injured Animal an Orphan?
If after several hours, no parents return, then the baby may truly be an orphan. Trying to adopt them is risky for you and the animal, as well as being illegal. Contact with humans and being captured are extremely stressful to wild creatures. Add a good dose of hunger and possibly an injury, and there is a real potential for damage to you or the animal you want to help. We humans cannot replace animal parents. All living beings have special requirements, particularly babies. Over the last 20 years extensive changes have taken place in how wild creatures are handled and what they’re fed. Wildlife rehabilitators are trained not only in how to meet the animal’s needs, but also in ways to keep them wild, while keeping everyone safe. True rehabilitation is time-consuming and expensive. In order to be considered rehabilitated, wild animals must be able to survive on their own, as part of their own species. They must be able to find food, a mate, and protect themselves from predators or other dangers. Not all of these things are instinctual. It is simply not possible for humans to teach some of these skills. If you are sure you have an injured or orphaned animal, remember to keep yourself safe first. An injured animal can attack without warning. They are in fear for their lives. Call the rehabilitation center before you do anything. If no one answers, leave a message. They are very good at getting back to people, and providing much needed advice, usually within an hour. Don’t just take the animal to them. Make sure the animal is out of reach of predators like cats and dogs. If you can safely catch it, put it in a box with a source of heat, i.e., water bottle wrapped in light cloth. Do not give it any food or water. The healthiest solution to wildlife injuries and rehabilitation may lie in realizing that we live in these animal’s homes. In many cases, they have nowhere else to go. There is enough room for us to share with them. Consider taking the following steps: • Create a wildlife sanctuary. Let your yard go a little wild. Brush piles are excellent habitat. • Discourage animals by keeping them out of your dwellings and making sure you’re not feeding them from your garbage can or pet food bowl. • Don’t use poison, like rat poison or slug-bait. Something else may eat the dead “pest” animal and die too. • Don’t trap them. It’s usually not legal and you’ll either create an opening for another animal to move in, or if you drop the trapped animal off somewhere else, it will then have to compete with the critters already there, without benefit of stashed food or knowledge of the area. • Protect your domestic animals, such as cats, dogs, and chickens. Keep them in at night. • Respect your wild neighbor’s wild nature. Don’t get too friendly. Coexisting with wild animals is heartwarming, fulfilling and gratifying. It enriches us while it teaches us about the complexities of the world around and inside of us. § Northwest Wildlife Rehabilitation Center Prevent the Need to Rescue a Wild Animal
Many wild animal injuries or problems are caused by humans. The most important thing you can do is to prevent the need to rescue a wild animal. 1. Don’t let your cats and dogs attack or play with wildlife. 2. Prevent birds from hitting windows. Keep your feeders within three feet or farther than 30 feet away. Put up stickers that are visible in the ultraviolet light spectrum. 3. Teach children to watch, but not play with, wild animals or their nests and burrows. 4. Be careful when driving, especially at dawn and dusk. A car is not a recognizable predator to animals. 5. Pick up garbage, like fishing line, six-pack holders and batteries, which animals may get tangled up in or try to eat. 6. Do your pruning and tree cutting October through February, the off-season for babies. If you must prune at other times of the year, check first for active nests, or holes in trees. Remember that some birds nest on the ground, where you might also find baby bunnies. Wait if you can. It only takes a few weeks for the babies to grow up enough to leave the nest. 7. Cap your chimneys and vents, so birds and other critters won’t get in, and you won’t have to try and get them out. 8. Take down soccer and volleyball nets you’re not using. Birds can get caught in them, especially night hunters who won’t see the nets. 9. Use organic, biodegradable products in your yard. Pesticides can have ugly effects for generations to come. |