Tag: Wildlife

The 3 Pillars of Wildlife Rehabilitation

Posted on by Soro Cyrene

Wildlife rehabilitation is a complex field, where a seemingly endless amount of information must be mastered in order to become a competent and skilled wildlife rehabilitator. Wildlife rehabilitators need to learn how to care for hundreds of species, each with their own unique requirements. It is natural to feel overwhelmed as a new wildlife rehabilitator. However, you don’t need to know everything in order to have a good foundational knowledge of wildlife rehabilitation practices. In order to provide basic, quality care to patients, wildlife rehabilitators must understand three key concepts: warmth, hydration, and stress.

Warmth

Maintaining an appropriate body temperature is critical for all life on Earth. A hypothermic patient is unable to benefit from care while its low body temperature is left untreated. If you attempt to feed a hypothermic patient, it is unlikely to be able to process the nutrition well and the feeding may even lead to the patient’s death. It is crucial to bring a patient’s body temperature to its ideal range before administering other forms of care. This can be done using an incubator, warm towels, and/or heating pads. Hypothermia is common in new wildlife patients, but hyperthermia can also occur. Understanding the normal body temperature ranges for species that you treat, and how to properly measure temperature, is essential for providing quality care.

Hydration

Dehydration is very common in new wildlife patients. It is critical that patients are sufficiently rehydrated before they are started on a feeding and medication regimen. Hydration can be assed using a variety of methods, from skin tenting to observing saliva consistency. The way in which you rehydrate a patient will depend on their condition. For example, a comatose patient should never be given fluids orally due to risk of aspiration, while a hypothermic patient should not be given subcutaneous fluids, as that can lead to a further drop in body temperature. Hydration should be regularly assessed for all patients throughout their entire rehabilitation process.

Stress

Undergoing rehabilitative care as a wild animal is inherently extremely stressful. Not only is stress unenjoyable, it has also been shown to reduce an animal’s ability to heal. Thus, the more stress that an animal is under while in care, the longer it will take for it to recover, and the more it will suffer. It is vital that we take every possible step to reduce the stress in our patients as much as possible. Stress can be reduced in many ways. Some examples include providing visual barriers (for example, sheets over patient enclosures so that they cannot see human caregivers every time their enclosure is passed by), reducing handling time as much as possible, speaking as little as possible while in earshot of patients, providing suitable enclosures that mimic the patient’s natural habitat, and providing housing with conspecifics or closely related species. Additionally, animals should be released as soon as they are ready to return to the wild. It is unethical to retain a fully healed patient for several days or weeks, simply because a release date hasn’t been set.

Understanding the importance of warmth, hydration, and a low-stress environment is critical for successful wildlife rehabilitation. These three concepts should be front and center in your mind for each patient you care for, from the moment they arrive to the time they are returned to freedom. We will be providing an in-depth class on each of these topics in the future, so stay tuned!

Share

Letting Nature Take ‘Its’ Course.

Posted on by Monte Merrick

It’s a common expression: let nature takes its course – and we learn it while we ‘re young. It can be used in many ways, but in the end, what it always means is that the best outcome can be achieved by doing nothing – that left alone, the inevitable outcome is the preferred outcome.

As wildlife rehabilitators, we hear this expression every day.

Two months ago, a man called from somewhere out Highway 36 – he’d found a fawn by the side of the road with a dead doe, presumably the fawn’s mother, most likely hit by a vehicle. The caller had already talked to a local government agent to find help. “The ranger said it would be better to let nature take it’s course,” he said, “but I couldn’t just leave the little guy there. Will you take him?”

Of course we would. And we did.

The fawn is doing well, is now being weaned from a bottle to foraging for greens, in the company of other fawns, untamed. If all continues to go well, he will soon be released back into a wild herd.

Two weeks ago we released an Osprey who’d been hit by a vehicle and picked up from the shoulder of a two-lane blacktop that skirts the western edge of Lassen National Park. The woman who found the bird talked to an employee at a park information booth who told her the best thing she could do was put the grounded bird back and, yes, let nature take its course. She said she couldn’t do that, so the employee found her a box and gave her a phone number for a veterinarian in Redding. When she got to Redding, the veterinary clinic wasn’t open (nor were they permitted to treat wildlife).

So she found us on the internet. Since she was already headed to the coast she was able to bring the Osprey to our clinic. It took all day, but eventually we had the bird in care. While in relatively good shape with no external injuries, the Osprey was slow to respond, seeming dazed. Within a couple days, however, in the safety of our clinic, the plunge-diving raptor regained his wits and was flying well and in a very dissatisfied mood.

As soon as he was ready, our staff took him on the 5 hour drive back to Lassen, back to his lake next to the volcano. He needed nothing more than some time in care – a safe haven where food and safety are provided.

If you put the Osprey back on the side of the road and “let nature take its course” – disoriented and grounded by his collision with a vehicle – it’s predictable that the Osprey will die. With no treatment, who knows how long it will take for him to recover his wits, if ever – and with no food or water, his slow decline gathers momentum until he’s too weak to seek shelter, let alone regain his ability to meet his own needs.  Another car, another predator, or a slow death by dehydration is as certain as night follows day.

If you provide care – hydration, food, anti-inflammatory medicine, a safe aviary, reduced stress – and let Nature take her course – the bird stands a very good chance of healing and getting a second chance.

Do all of the animals who we treat recover? Of course not. Many animals do not respond to treatment – the antibiotics are too late to prevent the death of a Barn Swallow bitten by a house cat, the neurological trauma that leaves the Raven with paralyzed legs doesn’t resolve. More often, the patient’s injuries are simply too severe.  The only course we can take is to humanely end the suffering. Any hunter can tell you that you don’t let an animal wander off to a slow death from the wounds that you’ve caused.  You don’t gut-shoot a deer and then “let nature take its course.” Wild animals who’ve been injured by the human-built world at least have the right to a humane death.

The person in uniform, or the biologist, or the front desk clerk, who recommends letting nature take its course may not be able to diagnose the injury, may not be aware that treatment is available, may not be informed at all on this topic. Often the person functioning as the authority is merely parroting a worn phrase we all know so well.

‘Let nature take its course’ is not a fact-based recommendation, it is not science based. Now of course there are many ways to use this phrase in many situations, but to be clear, when we’re talking about injured and orphaned wild animals, letting nature take its course means not taking responsibility for the injury and suffering our society has caused. It is irresponsible even though it parades as the dispassionate, wider-scoped perspective, not the uneducated sentimental feelings of compassion. And in this way, Nature is made out to be the culprit – Nature is cruel, and the compassionate person is a fool. A logging truck full of trees hits a deer and kills her, leaving her young stranded – too small to survive. The local ranger says the fawn should be left alone, that we should let nature take its course, and it is Nature who is cruel.

Meanwhile, who destroys Nature foolishly? Is it the person who blunders in picking up a fledgling sparrow thinking that the bird was in trouble and not simply in an awkward phase of learning to fly? Or a bison calf? Or, is it the builders of pipelines, the levelers of forests, the polluters of the sea? Why is it only fitting for nature to take its course when an individual is suffering an injury caused by industrial society?

And there is this: the heavy line drawn between the human and the natural, between society and the wild is religious, not scientific. It is a belief, not a finding. Who among us has the hubris to say where that line runs, or if it exists at all.

In the end, ‘letting nature take its course’ is a fallacy, an error, a hypocrisy, a lie.

Right now, in Washington state, wolves are slated to be slaughtered for having killed cattle that were put out to graze at the wolves’ den site on public lands. No cries from the biologists, the wardens, or the clerks now to let nature take its course – no cries at all.

Print

We are in the last days of our August fundraiser and we have not yet reached our necessary goal of $7000. We have nearly $2000 to go!! Click here to help us pay our bills and continue to provide our region with its only native wildlife hospital. Without your help, we wouldn’t be here! Thank you!

 

 

Share

Healing starts small and spreads…

Posted on by Monte Merrick

A relentless environmental journalist I highly respect posted a sorrowful account of what life doing his work is like.

As a man reaching his upper middle aged years, devoted to environmental and social justice for as long as I can remember (I hated Nixon – the sociopathic mass killer and 37th President of the USA – before I was ten), I’ve seen victories that matter – cleaner air, cleaner water, endangered species recovery (ironically all initiated during Nixon’s regime). And of course I’ve also seen the same irreversible losses we’ve all suffered, including our current failure to stop the causes of catastrophic climate change…

In any case, I sent this to him as an intended note of comfort and I am also sending it to you, for a slim thread to hang from in these days of justifiable environmental despair.

Here’s some small good news…

A red-tailed hawk, a big (1150grams) strong female, her tail just now turning red, was hit by a vehicle on US 101 between Eureka and Arcata. We picked her up from the side of the highway early Monday morning. She suffered no broken bones but her eyes were closed, she was barely responsive, her head tracked uselessly from right to left. Her conditon remained exactly like this for 36 hours. We administered anti-inflammatory pain medication and fluids. I checked on her frequently.

My dismay was mounting.

Finally, unwilling to prolong her suffering much further, I checked her again late afternoon Tuesday. Pulling the old, donated pillow case back from the clear acrylic door of the incubator where I’d housed her, there she was – facing me, her fierce stance returning, her eyes open, clear, prepared. She was ready to meet me, on whatever terms the blaze of reality dictates, regardless.

She’s not flying yet, but soon she will. And then she’ll be free.

41 other cases in care right now, raccoon kits, mule deer fawns, juvenile brown pelicans, striped skunks, a glaucous winged gull who ate a fish hook.

All of these animals have a good prognosis for release.

After that? Who knows? Against the 6th extinction? I have no answer. But against my one “wild and precious life,” everything.

take care,
monte merrick

Share

California’s first wolf in 90 years may have pups in Oregon!

Posted on by Monte Merrick

Wolf-OR7-DFG-Shinn
OR-7, in one of the only photos taken while he was in California (photo: CDFW)

Exciting news! OR-7, or Journey, the most famous wolf in the world, first wild wolf in western Oregon since the 1940s as well as the first wild wolf in California since 1924, may have finally found what he was looking for: a mate!

As reported today, biologists tracking Journey since he was a pup in Northeast Oregon have strong evidence that the wandering male has met up with a black female wolf in the Rogue River/Siskiyou National Forest in Southwest Oregon. While it isn’t confirmed that they are denning or have pups, their movements, still being captured by Journey’s radio-collar, indicate the strong possibility. It will be mid-summer before biologists will approach the pair to see if they have pups.

Share

Keep Wild Families Together, Don’t Trap Wildlife

Posted on by Monte Merrick

For wild animals, Spring and Summer mean one thing: baby season! Everywhere you look sparrows, swallows, hummingbirds, eagles, skunks, squirrels, opposums and raccoons are starting families and raising young. Whether we live in the forests, by the ocean, or in the middle of town, wild parents-to-be, in need of security and privacy, seek shelter to make dens and nests. Sometimes this shelter ends up being in our homes – for many reasons this might not be the best situation.

opos trapBaby opossums being treated at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, 2014 (photo Laura Corsiglia/BAX)

Whether it’s raccoons under the house, birds nesting in vents, skunks under the porch, mallards in your backyard, you might face these beautiful, mysterious and unfortunately unwelcome guests. If so, Humboldt Wildlife Care Center’s Humane Solutions Service can help. Our experienced wildlife staff provide effective solutions without trapping & killing.

Live traps, which manufacturers such as Havahart claim are humane, are not humane at all. We’ve seen a raccoon mother gnaw at a trap until her teeth were broken off at her gums trying to get back to her den and her little ones. Every year, countless times, wild mothers are trapped. Whether she is killed, ‘relocated’ or severley injured trying to get to her babies, she doesn’t make it back to her den and her helpless young are orphaned. These babies die alone, or if lucky, they’re found and brought to a facility such as ours. We strive hard to provide good care, and to keep wild babies wild, but no person can raise wild babies the way their parents can.

Not only is trapping cruel, California requires a permit from the Department of Fish and Wildlife to use these traps. Written permission from all neighbors within 150 yards of the trap site is also required. Many people are not aware that relocation is illegal, and worse, usually fatal. Consider how you would respond if you were trapped and taken far from your home, and released to fend for yourself in a community where you don’t know anyone. The law is simple: once an animal is trapped, that animal is to be released on site or killed.

Beside its moral repugnance, killing one animal merely opens space for another wild animal to move in. The reasons for the animal’s presence, such as pet food, unsecured garbage, even koi ponds and other attractants have not been addressed. And if this is a den site, orphaned babies are left in the destructive wake.

Quite simply, trapping is not the solution!

If you have a conflict with a wild animal, please, don’t take matters into your own hands. There are too many ways it can go wrong. Call professionals who are committed to humane resolutions. Humboldt Wildlife Care Center’s Humane Solutions Service can safely solve your dilemma and keep wild families together.

707-822-8839
humane-solutions@birdallyx.net

Print

Share

Legislation that Will Impact Wild Animals

Posted on by Monte Merrick

Next week in Sacramento, several bills in committees will be heard that each have potential to cause serious negative impact to wild animals. Now is a good time to let your representatives know how you feel, and how important are wild animals, wild systems and wild Earth. How much democracy we have may be up for debate, but if we don’t use the tools we know we have we have none. Here’s a brief summary of two of these bills, why Bird Ally X opposes them and who you should contact to make your voice heard.

AB 2205: In 2012, Senate Bill 1221, which banned the use of hounds to hunt bear or bobcat was passed and signed into law. Since taking effect January of 2013, the number of Black Bears killed by hunters in California fell 40%, which is approximately the percentage of bears killed using hounds in the preceding years.

AB 2205, introduced this year by Assemblymember Tim Donnelly (R-33), would repeal that ban. Bird Ally X opposes this bill. Hunting Black Bear, or any animals, with hounds is cruel, serves no wildlife management goal, is disruptive to other native, non-targeted wild animals, and is cruel to the hounds as well. (Read our letter here)

14 other states have also banned hounding bear, including Montana nearly 100 years ago!

AB 2205 will be heard in the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks, and Wildlife Tuesday, April 29. Follow the provided links to that committee to find if your representative is a member. Let him or her know that hounding bear is a relic of a bygone era. Uphold the ban. Oppose AB 2205.

If you are able to attend the hearing in Sacramento and speak on behalf of bear, bobcat, and all wildlife, that would be awesome! Here’s the address!

AB 2343: This bill, authored by Mike Gatto (D-43) is a legislative attempt to financially shore up the legally mandated animal shelter minimum hold period, known as Hayden’s law, passed in 1998. Hayden’s law lengthened the period lost or stray animals must be held by shelters to ensure they have adequate time to be reunited with their human families. During the budget crisis of 2009, this law was suspended due to the costs of these increased periods. While we support legislation that strives for the best outcomes for lost pets, a portion of the provisions of this bill will promote the abandonment of impounded cats.

The specific language that creates this problem is:
SEC. 4. 31752. (a) Except as provided in Section 17006, for any local governmental entity that receives block grant funding under Section 17581.8 of the Government Code, no stray cat admitted to a public or private shelter shall be euthanized or otherwise disposed of until after the expiration of the required holding period for a stray cat impounded pursuant to this division, which shall be six business days, not including the day of impoundment admission, except as follows: (b) (1) In addition to the prohibition against euthanasia set forth in subdivision (a), a stray cat admitted to a public or private shelter shall be made available for owner redemption, adoption, or release to an animal rescue or adoption organization during the required holding period, as follows:
(B) Any stray cat without identification may be made available for adoption or release to an animal rescue or adoption organization at any time.

The costs associated with providing real, humane care for large numbers of homeless cats makes sheltering difficult. Unfortunately, many so-called rescue groups solve this difficulty by merely abandoning these unwanted house cats in outdoor feral colonies. Transferring these animals to “rescue” groups without ensuring that this is not the case is tragically irresponsible.

In order for this bill to truly protect animal welfare in spirit and letter, it must specifically state that these rescue groups not abandon cats received from shelters into uncontained feral colonies, managed or otherwise. Uncontained feral cat colonies, as peer-reviewed scientific studies can verify, are inhumane to cats and devastating to wildlife.

As wildlife rehabilitators we deal first hand with the harm caused by invasive free-roaming cats. Each year California rehabilitators take in well over 10,000 wild animals who have been injured by housecats. More than half of these animals must be humanely euthanized due to the severity of their injuries. Of course these are just the animals that are found and brought to a wildlife caregiver. As was reported in the Smithsonian Magazine in 2013, free-roaming cats kill as many as 3.7 billion birds and 20 billion small mammals annually in the United States alone!

The life of a homeless free-roaming cat is also brutal. Cars, disease, dishonorable people, each poses a real and significant hazard. As has been said many times, feral cats do not die of old age. Feral and free-roaming cats die suffering deaths caused by infection, parasites, traumatic injury and more. We advocate strongly that responsible pet ownership includes keeping cats contained, safe from highways, abuse, feline disease, and spread of other diseases such as rabies and toxoplasmosis, a significant threat to public health for which cats are the primary host.

The needs of wild animals, the needs of homeless or stray cats, and public safety must come before well-intended mistakes. AB 2343, as it is written, risks enshrining irresponsibility and unnecessary wildlife mortality in law.

AB 2343 will be heard in the Assembly Committee for Local Government, Wednesday, April 30. You can let Assemblymember Katcho Achadjian, the chair for that committee, know that wildlife must not be asked to pay the costs of abandoning stray cats. AB 2343 is bad for wildlife, bad for cats, and bad for people.

Hon. Katcho Achadjian, chair
Assembly Local Government Committee
1020 N Street, Room 157
Sacramento, California 95814
916.319.3958

click here for hearing information

Literature on feral cats and feral cat management:

Longcore, T., et al (2009) Critical assessment of claims regarding management of feral cats by trap–neuter–return, Conservation Biology, volume 23, no. 4, 887–894

Jessup, D. (2004) The welfare of feral cats and wildlife, Journal of American Veterinary Medicine Association, volume 225, no. 9

Peterson, M., et al (2012) PLOS ONE, www.plosone.org, volume 7, no. 9, e44616

McCarthy, R., et al (2013) Estimation of effectiveness of three methods of feral cat population control by use of a simulation model, Journal of American Veterinary Medicine Association, volume 243, no. 4

 

 

Share