May07
Help Wildlife This Spring
Posted at 04:40 PM | Permalink
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Comments (4)
Did you know that this is Be Kind to Animals Week? Well, it is. So each day this week I’m going to do one entry dedicated to simple, easy things we can all do in our everyday lives to help animals.
Today I want to talk a bit about wildlife. Spring is a particularly important time of year for wildlife because that’s when baby birds are learning to fly and other animals are just learning their way around, so it’s super important to know what to do if you come across any of these little guys that appear to need help. It happens more often than you’d think. In fact, not a day goes by that we don’t get numerous calls from people all over the country who have stepped in to help wildlife in their area.
I’ll admit that this topic was kind of new to me. In fact, all I really knew was the whole thing about “if you touch a baby bird her mother won’t take her back into the nest because she will smell like a human,” which I learned is totally false anyway. So I guess I knew absolutely nothing useful about the topic beforehand! Luckily we’ve got a great online guide that will help you determine if the animals actually need help, and if so, what you should do and what supplies you need to help them.
The thing that most surprised me is that more often than not (unless the animal is in imminent danger), the right thing to do if you do come across any baby animals who may need some help is to take a wait and see approach to “rescuing” them. Often, Mom and Dad are nearby and the best thing to do is usually to leave the animals alone and let their parents take care of them.
Anyway, check out the guide, it’s great info, and of course, if you have any questions, you can always give us a shout.
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Comments
I'm seeing ads at hardware stores for these stupid "humane" traps.
When people trap wildlife, they just remove nursing mothers from the babies and the babies die
Easy solution! No more trapping.
Instead, seal entrances into buildings, seal trash, and remove all sources of food (even bird food if necessary.)
If there is nothing to attract wildlife, they won't stick around.
There is NO need for trapping.
Posted by: kelly | May 7, 2007 05:31 PM
Kelly, I totally agree. I know people who just trap bobcats so they can shoot them. It's terrible.
But I use the humane traps to catch the strays I rescue - so they're not all bad.
I'm also licensed as a wildlife rehabber and it's important to call a rehabber before people rescue wildlife - we tell people to put the animal in a cardboard box and don't touch them.
Most of the wildlife deaths after we got them were because people tried to feed the animals or otherwise tried to treat them. That was usually worse than their original injury or problem. Call a rehabber before you touch wildlife!! :)
Posted by: Maya | May 7, 2007 08:54 PM
Maya, I totally know what you mean. I'm a rehabber in Australia and the same happens here, there is also a lot of problems with people wanting wildlife as pets so if they find a kangaroo joey they raise it then want to hand it over for release totally imprinted as they don't have the facilities to keep them.
There are even people out there that will shoot a roo to get the joey for their kids, it's sickening. I get a lot in that are near to dead because they wouldn't hand them over until they got sick and they couldn't cope.
Posted by: Sonia | May 9, 2007 12:56 AM
HELP; my little girls best friend told me that there were not any parents to these 4 baby birds in a nest at her house and that they had been feeding them worms. So, I climbed up and they were chirping so i fed them each a piece of a worm which from what I could see they swallowed. They were very small with big yellow beaks. Then I learned that she was not telling the truth. Anyway, will the mother come back or should I take them and feed them?
Posted by: Karen | April 16, 2008 06:09 PM