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Wild Lives: Callous Acts Can Turn Spring's Magic Tragic
 Wild
Lives: Callous Acts Can Turn Spring's Magic Tragic
by Lynn Cuny, Founder & Executive Director
Spring's arrival is hard to miss here at Wildlife
Rescue & Rehabilitation (WRR). The phones buzz wildly
with news of mothers and babies and the often-preventable
tragedies that tear their tender lives apart. The rooms of
the clinic fill with hundreds of minute opossums, squirrels,
and raccoons, many of whose tiny eyes have yet to open. The
lives of these young charges rest on their own determination
for life and the patience and tender care offered by our staff
and volunteers.
Yes, the renewal trumpeted by our celebrated
bluebonnets and Mexican redbuds is replicated in the animal
kingdom, too. It is nature's way — and this is her generous
season.
Sadly, humans are not always equally generous.
One clear example of this was the thoughtless resident who
should have known better when he laid out his trap earlier
this month seeking to terminate what life he could. When the
door snapped shut on the mother gray fox he should have known
the meaning of her rounded middle. Although these incredible
creatures do devour their share of rabbits, rats, and mice,
a fox this pregnant can be hard to miss.
 The
trapper turned the animal into a local animal control facility
to have the mother killed. He obviously didn't consider the
pups or the abandoned male left behind (foxes are monogamous,
mating for life). However, something inside the officer who
received the fox rebelled on seeing that swollen, sheltering
middle. Our phone rang. And within a few days, the foxes were
born here at our sanctuary in Kendalia.
This time of year, traffic accidents, trapping,
and poisons devastate not only the lives you see. Often, there
is a litter or nest just paces away where resounding suffering
is sure to follow. How else would we explain the hundreds
of opossums already crowding our clinic? But devastating errors
are sometimes made at the other end of the spectrum, as well.
Well-meaning, but uninformed residents, often
"rescue" young animals who are perfectly capable
of making it on their own. They may find a fawn seemingly
abandoned in a field, or a fledgling bird fluttering about
on the ground. Each of these cases is completely normal. It
often takes fledging birds a couple days to come to terms
with the challenge of taking to the air. Fawns require so
much from their mothers that the does must forage night and
day to produce food for their newborns. Wildlife mothers are
devoted to their young and you can bet they are close by watching
every time you tread near their youngster.
Remember, a baby's best chance of survival
is being reunited with the mother, though there are times
that a helping hand is needed.
 Sometimes
it is simply a matter of putting a still-pink
nestling back in her nest. It is not true that momma birds
will reject their young if they have been handled, so don't
worry about this popular fallacy. Also, if an animal is obviously
wounded and in danger from fire ants or some predator (your
cat or dog included), they will need your assistance. Wearing
thick gloves, place the animal in a box and keep him warm.
Call WRR for assistance as soon as possible.
In the case of the gray fox mother, we set
her out in an open enclosure with her litter, hoping that
given enough time and privacy she would relocate her young
and continue to give them the nurturing they so desperately
need. Obviously traumatized, she instead ran off not to return.
It is now the responsibility of our staff to do what they
can to make this matter right — a tragedy that never
should have been.
We know that Life does not always triumph.
We understand death as part of nature, too. Sadly, too many
people don't ever ask themselves what their responsibility
is to the wild lives we share this earth with. It would stun
them to be told that the Golden Rule applies to all of our
relatives — not just the human variety.
This baby season is a perfect time to ask
yourself how you will choose to live amongst the wildlife
who are your neighbors and who deserve your respect. As the
dominant species on the planet, the way humans live affects
all life everywhere. The celebration of Spring this year need
not be marred by the callous acts of a few.
 Upon
deep reflection, you may decide quite suddenly that your purpose
is to live with an open hand and an open heart to the life
surging around you. Or the realization may settle in more
slowly, as the colors and songs of the season weave their
way among us. However it comes, the sense of connection it
brings is guaranteed to put a thrill in your heart to last
a lifetime.
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