Wild Baby Rescue, Week 2

This week at Wild Baby Rescue, more and  more baby animals continue to be admitted to the facility. This week, we added new fawns, opossums, rabbits, and bats. Some new animals arrived as well, including skunks and raccoons. One in particular was admitted by Grace Wilson and myself after we found it in the middle of the road. It seemed to be abandoned, and we couldn't find the nest, so we managed to capture it and bring it to the facility, where he is now doing well.

In addition to feeding and charting the baby groundhogs and opossums, I fed the baby squirrels, assisted with the raccoons, and fed the fawns. The fawns take milk out of a bottle, and they always love it when we come into their pen to feed them.

We continue to feed the foxes that we let out into their pens last week. They seem to be quite at home there and are very active. This week, we are preparing a pen for one of our orphaned

groundhogs. He will be in a shorter enclosure with lots of spaces to hide in and burrow. This will prepare him well for his life in the wild.

The bat that I am in charge of is doing well also. It is my job to make sure he has a full belly and to help him locate his food via echolocation. During his feeding, I was surprised when he was able to detach himself from the wall of the flight cage and flap down to the floor. He did this a total of three times, which is more than what he previously did with my help. This is good progress for him because it teaches him that he needs to hunt for his food and go after it, rather than just sitting there and waiting for it to come to him. Exercising his wings is another crucial aspect of raising a bat. His wings need to be strong enough to carry him through the air. I help him exercise his wings by making him climb up the side of the cage multiple times, and enticing him to flap and get wind under his wings. He should be flying soon, hopefully.