00:19 Kathy

You’re out for a walk in the park and stumble across a goose that looks like it might be in trouble. Or you’re hiking through the forest and find a baby deer curled up on the forest floor. 

What do you do? 

 Hi. I’m Kathy Mueller host of Wild About Wildlife. Today, in part two of Help I’ve Found an Animal I continue my conversation with Mel Paterack and Sarah Norley. They both work, day in, day out, hands on in Salthaven’s clinic, rehabbing more than one thousand wildlife patients every year.

They also provide advice to people wondering what to do when they find wildlife. 

 In today’s episode we focus on turtles, baby deer, geese, raptors, opossums and raccoons. 

 01:09 Kathy

Raccoons now they are so cute. The little babies. They're obviously very, very destructive. What should people do with raccoons? Is that an animal that Salthaven even takes?

01:23 Sarah

It's not actually. We aren't taking raccoons at this time. We have talked about it for the future, but right now there is a virus going around called distemper. It's really prolific in both skunks and raccoons right now. So, unfortunately, we just don't have the facility to be able to house them and take care of them. They are one of the smartest species ever you know, and their little fingers, they can get in and out of anything. So, right now, we you know we hope to be able to take them in in the future and be able to care for them. But right now, it's just not in the books. 

01:59 Kathy

What should somebody do if they come across a little you know cub, are they called a cub, the raccoons babies? What are they called pups? 

02:08 Mel

I think pups. Yeah, we definitely advise the public for sure we still, despite not taking them, we get many, many calls for raccoons whether they're adults or infants or pups we’re deciding. We definitely advise the public on it because we can help guide their queries where they need to go. So, if somebody can describe the symptoms and what they're seeing, we can still help the public and you know you maybe direct their call to London Animal Care Centre if they're within the city limits because sometimes they have an officer that can come out and help them assess the situation and see if they need to collect the animal. We can direct them to other rehab centres who do take in raccoons. We have a list on our website under the Found an Animal tab that is a link to the Ministry of Natural Resources licensed wildlife rehabilitators. And on there, it does indicate what city rehabilitators are located in and what species they take in so we can help direct their calls as needed as well.

3:07 Kathy

And then like, baby raccoons is that something that you would ever recommend people handle or no, it's better if you see a raccoon and you think it needs support, call somebody first and get direction that way.

03:21 Sarah 

I would still call. Yeah they can be quite feisty and they're pretty good at getting out of things so I would recommend giving either us a call or giving you know that list that Mel just mentioned another rehabber a call who could give you some advice on what to do from there 

03:39 Mel

And also let's not forget that raccoons do carry, potentially can carry zoonotic diseases which are diseases that can be transmitted from an animal to people and other mammals. Sarah mentioned distemper that is a virus that can be transmitted to our pets even.

03:54 Kathy

Ok, so yeah, better to make that phone call and just keep everybody safe right? Do you guys get many turtles coming in.

04:01 Mal

Yeah, yeah, we definitely get some turtles. When we can and when the case isn't highly critical, we’ll take care of them in-house. When we need to though, we do actually partner with the turtle trauma centre. So, when it's a more difficult case or perhaps surgical case that we might not have the means for, we will partner with other rehab centres that specialize more in turtles but we are happy to take them in and one little word of advice, when you do see a turtle on the road. If you are going to try to help it and move it off of the road, we do have a few safety tips. You never want to grab it from the front, especially if it's a snapping turtle. So, if you are handling it you'd be aiming for the back of the carapace which is its shell. Maybe one hand underneath and one at the back on the side for support depending on the size. And if you're moving it, move it in the direction it is already going. Don't bring it back where it came from or it's just going to end up back on the road again. 

04:54 Kathy

Okay, good advice there. I have deer on the list of things to ask about. Do you get calls about baby deer, fawns?

05:01 Sarah

Yep, we sure do, starting about the third week of May which I mean, with this year's trends that could change, but typically it's the third week of May. You'll hear Brian say it every year, the third week of May we start getting fawn calls, people finding fawns you know in the middle of fields, in the middle of forests. They're hunkered down in tall grass. They look like they've been abandoned but a lot of the time they have not. Mom can sometimes not come back for over 24 hours so she, again like the bunnies, they stay away as much as they possibly can to try and protect their babies from other predators. So, with fawns a lot of the times they're totally fine. Now if mom or dad has been compromised in some way and they haven't been around for a while, you can sometimes tell by the curl of their ears. So, normally fawn's ears should be standing straight up. If they're curled over, it may be dehydrated, it may be starting to get quite thin or emaciated. At that point we would need to intervene and bring it into the centre and assess it from there.

06:09 Mel

Brian has a fancy little poem that helps you remember it that he likes to tell in presentations. So, if the ears are straight, the fawn is great. If the ears are curled, the fawn needs help in this world.

06:21 Kathy

Yeah, that's a good way, an easy way to remember it. We talked about geese earlier a little bit and how territorial they are especially you know mom and dad. Um, and I'm sure at some point we've all had been chased by a goose over the course of our lives. How do you know and is there anything that you should do differently if a gosling needs some support?

06:41 Mel

Well goslings are tricky too because people see these cute little yellow fluff balls and want to just pick it up and snuggle it and bring it in. So, we would always recommend looking around first and seeing if you can find the parent and you know, if you see a single there is a chance that this little fellow might need help and again we recommend calling us and going from there. But sometimes if you see one by themselves, there is a chance that they have lost their way. We often get calls for goslings being hatched out in odd places and different situations. So, there are sometimes that we need to intervene in that respect and help you know, get mom and dad back with the gosling. And then sometimes unfortunately, if the parent has been compromised, then the babies do need to come into our care.

07:28 Kathy

So is that a case then you're going to need thicker gloves in that case, you're not going to want to be using your normal you know kitchen gloves like Sarah had mentioned earlier for a different animal. You're going to want something that's a little bit heftier to protect yourself?

07:44 Mel

Not for goslings. They're pretty docile, pretty calm. And if they do bite, it's not anything very painful or hard. They don't have you know, sharp pointy beaks or anything like that like other species might.

07:57 Kathy

And then for raptors, so we're talking about you know, the hawks, the owls, are those the kind of animals that we should even be going anywhere close to? Talk about you know, ripping your hand apart if you get too close or if you want to touch them.

08:13 Mel

Yeah, so with our raptor species, these are sometimes ones that we will recommend we'll come out and do a recovery or a rescue with them. So, we would advise you not to approach them because not only do they have sharp pointy beaks, but they have really sharp strong talons on each of their toes as well. So, they have weapons on both ends, basically. They're armed, so they will protect themselves as well. They're highly territorial and if they feel threatened then they might actually reach out with a foot and we call it getting footed and I can say from experience that that doesn't feel great. It does hurt when you get footed by a raptor. So, these guys, we’d want to get a photo a video and give us a call first and we can advise you on the situation. If the bird seems depleted enough and the situation is safe, we might advise getting a large box, maybe a recycle tote and if you can get close enough, you can put the bin over top of the bird and then take either the lid of the tote or you know a piece of cardboard or wood and slide it underneath the tote and then you very gently flip it over upright and you now have a bird in a box. So, if the scenario is safe and we think it's okay to do that and the caller is comfortable doing that, then we'll recommend that, otherwise if it's within our driving vicinity, We can come out and do a rescue. We can partner with London Animal Care Centre like we mentioned before, they have officers who are equipped to handle raptors in that regard as well. And if it's too far, we might know of another raptor centre nearby that we could partner with and help make that rescue.

09:45 Kathy

Is there any animal that you see a lot of that we haven't discussed that we should?

09:51 Sarah

Um, opossums. We do see those a lot in the spring, especially the babies. One of the things that I've actually been doing recently, I think I've stopped maybe three times in the past week to check possum pouches, for babies. That is unfortunately past possums that I've drove by on the road so, I carry a box of gloves in my car with me, pull over and obviously when it's safe, go in, check the pouch and see if there's any babies. So far, luckily there's been none but that is just one thing that we can do to make sure that at least the babies have a second chance if mom was trying to cross a road and unfortunately didn't make it. 

10:31 Kathy

Are possum babies, so once they are born, are they ever in any kind of danger that they might need human support or do you find them abandoned, or again, something maybe has happened to mom and they're left?

10:44 Sarah 

Yeah, so possums are kind of different from other mammal species in that sense in that they stay with mom for quite a bit longer than some others like compared to say bunnies. So, possums, once they're born they actually have some really cool evolutionary biology where they're inside mom's pouch. They are one of the only marsupials in Ontario so, when they're in mom's pouch, they are attached to her nipples to be fed, and once they're big enough they do detach. And then they crawl right out of her pouch and actually stick on her back. So basically, she's got you know up to 13 babies just holding on for dear life as she's walking through the woods, so they're really cool in that sense. So usually, unless mom has been compromised like you said, they're pretty safe because they'll be right with mom until they're ready to go off on their own.

11:39 Kathy

There is so much conflicting advice out there. So, people may head to Google first and okay, what do I do, I have found a squirrel and they get advice that yes, give it some milk. Give it some food. And that's opposite of what you're saying to do so, how do people know that the information they're getting is accurate? It's not going to harm the animal and yeah that it's basically a safe course of action to follow?

12:08 Sarah

Yeah I would I mean always recommend reputable sources. So, I mean I may be biased in saying that we would be a reputable source for any questions that people have. You know, there are lots of wildlife organizations online like the NWRA they're the National Wildlife Rehabilitation Association, things like that. You know, they have lots of reputable sources online that people can go to, you know, if you're just googling something and you go to squirrels.com, maybe double check that source before you're using that. But again, if you're questioning anything feel free to give us a call and we can like you point you in the right direction.

12:50 Kathy

We've covered so much ground today and a lot of information we're putting out there. Like I have trouble remembering from one animal to the next because it's different. What's your best advice then for people when they do find an animal? They don't know if it needs help. Maybe it does need help. What should they do?

13:13 Sarah

Give us a call. Always give us a call. Especially in the summer. We've got people on the phones from 8 a m till 10 pm so we are always here, just give us a call, explain the situation. Try and give us as much detail as possible and we will direct you from there depending on the species, depending on the situation and yeah, we'll help you.

13:37 Mel

Even after hours, we sometimes have the phones monitored as well and if nobody answers leave a voicemail and we can get back to you right away.

13:43 Kathy

And a phone call is best as opposed to getting a Facebook message or something like that? For sure a phone call you guys will get and see.

13:53 Mel

Our social media isn't monitored 24 hours and it isn't monitored in real time. So, Facebook messages and Instagram messages we get to when we can but 9 times out of 10 the advice there is to reach out to the office. Our phones are monitored like Sarah said so give us a call. I mean, you could even give us a text but we'd recommend a call so we can just help you deal with that situation at hand.

14:13 Kathy

So, we've talked about small animals, bigger animals, animals with attitudes. In Part 1 of Help I’ve Found an Animal, Mel shared one of her most memorable moments at Salthaven. It involved two bald eagles locking talons during a fight in mid-air, crashing to the ground – still connected. Sarah it’s going to be hard to top that but what’s one of your most favourite rescues?

14:41 Sarah

The one that comes to mind for me was last spring actually and this kind of ties into what we were talking about earlier with our goslings. Mel and I actually did a rooftop rescue in downtown London. There was, I think it was 6 little goslings up on a rooftop downtown and they'd been there, you know, for a couple of days so we were getting slightly concerned after that amount of time making sure that you know they have fluids and food because there's there's not much up on a rooftop really for them to eat. So, mom and dad weren’t there so we had gathered up 6 goslings into a small cat carrier and we waited. Waited and waited for probably over an hour and we're going where are mom and dad? We're looking up in the sky waiting for them to fly by and nothing and eventually we start kind of walking around the building and we do see 2 adult Canada geese down in the park eating grass, you know, not even bothering to look up at their babies, seeing that two humans are gathering them up into a crate We did bring them down, walked across into the park and, sure enough, we get slightly closer 

and you know their heads kind of start to perk up and they're slightly interested. They can hear the peeps of the goslings coming from the cage. 

So, what we have to do is we put the cage down and then back away. We got to make sure that we get mom and dad's trust before we get even close because they're looking and they're going that sounds familiar, those are my babies. So again, we waited for you know, probably another 10 minutes or so before mom and dad came right up to the crate and then one of us I think it was me at the time, started moving, slowly. So, I have my back to the adults, crouched down on the ground try and make myself as small as possible and start moving towards the cage because keeping in mind this is downtown London. We are on a busy street. There's so much traffic going by. We want to make sure that we get them to a safe spot. And the closest was probably about I don't even know how far we walked, maybe five kilometres across busy roads. So eventually I got a hold of the crate and we just slowly walk. 

We make sure that mom and dad are following. Mel stopped traffic for me as we crossed Richmond street and finally got them down to the Thames so that was just really exciting to do together, I mean we had so much fun and then it was great to see the babies get released with the parents down by the river all safe and sound. 

17:27 Mel and Sarah

Do you remember the second part of that after we released the goslings and they're reunited with mom and dad? Remember what gosling number 6 did? Oh went straight into the river. There was a second rescue that day. Thankfully I think we had some nets got gosling number 6 back onto the dry ground and then they all took off together. But yeah, it doesn't always go perfectly. 

17:50 Kathy

Another great story with another happy ending. 

Thank you so much Mel and Sarah for joining me today. I really appreciate it.

 17:59 

Thanks for having us Kathy.

And a quick clarification – baby raccoons are indeed called kits, not pups.  

If you missed Part 1 of Help I’ve Found an Animal, given it a listen. We talk about birds, bunnies and baby squirrels, plus Mel shares that incredible story about the two eagles locking talons. 

You can find a lot more information on our website – Salthaven.org and click on the Found an Animal tab. Our phone number is also listed if you need to give us a call.

If you have a question about an animal we didn’t cover, email me at wildaboutwildlife@salthaven.org and we’ll address it in a future episode of Wild About Wildlife. 

See you next time!