Wildlife Encounters: Baby Animals

With nesting and birthing season underway, wildlife rehabilitators are inundated with calls about orphaned or injured baby animals. Sometimes the animal is truly in trouble and can be rescued, while others are actually following a normal protocol and should be left alone. And of course, over all of them looms the specter of “let nature take its course.”

The “circle of life” and “letting nature take its course” are very practical outlooks. After all, everything has a time to live and a time to die, right? But I know through many personal experiences how hard it is to let that one play out! Sure, I love carrion beetles (who doesn’t), and I want a baby hawk to have plenty to eat, but still, when there’s a sick little bunny on the ground in front of me, or a crying baby raccoon that is obviously lost, it’s hard to walk away and do nothing. I usually succeed in making myself follow that course of action, knowing if the animal dies it will truly benefit another one. I remind myself that a recently-fledged hawk or young fox is not capable of catching a healthy adult chipmunk, but learns survival skills by finding a sick or wounded one it can capture. I remind myself that the American Burying Beetle is an endangered species, and wouldn’t it be cool if one happened upon this animal after it dies? But it is always a struggle to not step in and try to save the day.

If you feel you MUST rescue an animal in need, here are some serious dos and don’ts to follow:

1) Stay safe! The animal doesn’t know you are trying to help. You match exactly the picture of “nasty predator” from his self-help book, so guard against being bitten or scratched by using heavy gloves and handling the animal as little as possible.

2) Safety includes protecting yourself against parasites and diseases. Most wild animals have external parasites – ticks, lice, fleas or all of the above – so wear gloves and don’t let your kids cuddle the cute baby! They also might have a disease that you don’t want to expose you or your pets to, including rabies, distemper, and a variety of other viruses. Limit contact and thoroughly wash or dispose of any blankets or containers used to transport the animal.

3) Consider whether the animal is really in need of assistance. If you walk by some young creature and it looks disheveled, begs for food, and claims its parents haven’t fed it in days, ask yourself, “how is this different from my teenager, who lies on the couch and begs for pizza money?” Truly, many “orphaned” babies are simply teenagers who don’t yet know how to fly (much like a 15-year-old behind the wheel) or hunt, and whose parents are trying a little tough love to make it “get off the couch.”

If you come along and feed it, you’ve stopped the natural process of the youngster learning to find its own food. Likewise, some REALLY young animals should also be left alone. A mother rabbit really doesn’t return to the nest until after dark, so you will not see her unless you use night-vision goggles. If the dog dug up the babies, put them back in the nest and sure enough, the mother rabbit will reclaim them. (Rabbits never read those books that say they abandon their young if you or your dog touches them.) Female deer really do leave their newborn fawns for hours on end, because the tiny baby can’t keep up and is better off staying still and hidden. These are not babies that should be rescued, or even approached!

4) If you are SURE the animal should be rescued, check the DNR’s website for a list of licensed wildlife rehabilitators (www.michigan.gov/dnr, click on “wildlife & habitat”). Don’t be surprised at the very short list – rehabbing wildlife is extremely time-consuming, expensive and generally thankless.

I hope I haven’t caused you to dread your next outdoor experience! This is a beautiful season to get outside and enjoy nature’s show, including baby animals. Hopefully they will all cooperate and have only positive experiences in front of you!

- Janea Little, CNC Senior Naturalist

What are Wetlands for?

“But what is it FOR?” My dad asked the same question a third time, trying to derive something from my first two answers that made sense of the “wasteland” we were driving by. I always ogled this particular wetlands area, even as a “drive-by”, to look for black terns, great blue herons, blue-winged teal, sandhill cranes and other great wildlife that used it either for breeding or during migration. As my Dad and I drove by and he first asked its purpose, I assumed it was just a small-talk question from Visiting Dad, so I told him it’s a wetlands area, and is wonderful for wildlife. “Yes, but it doesn’t look like it’s being used for anything. What’s it for?” he asked again. I spewed more details on the wildlife, and threw in the value of wetlands for flood control, figuring since he lived near the Mississippi River he would value anything that could reduce flood damage. When he repeated the question a third time, clearly frustrated by my inability to understand basic economics, I finally understood – what direct, tangible, countable, dollars-and-cents benefit could he or society GAIN from this land? What was it FOR? ”Oh,” I said, as though everything else I had mentioned was just fluff, “well, it’s used as a nursery for northern pike.” Pay dirt at last – he was pleased that the land wasn’t going to “waste” after all.

If your property has been damaged by floodwaters, your well contaminated by nitrates, or your riverside cabin is crumbling off an eroding bank, words like “flood control, soil erosion, and water purification” strike you as serious benefits provided by wetlands. Throw in “wildlife habitat” and it’s a no-brainer that wetlands are valuable, right? But historically they have been viewed as a problem to be solved, a nemesis to progress and development, and land that might someday be “reclaimed” into something worthwhile.

The foremost way to reclaim such land was to drain it, using pipes, culverts and roadside ditches to move all that water “away” as fast as possible. The problem is the water doesn’t just go “away” – it inundates everything downstream, and carries tons of soil with it. Wetlands regulate water flow by spreading it out, slowing it down and releasing it more slowly into rivers, streams and lakes. This slowing-down process reduces soil erosion and silt-load, and stabilizes water temperature, preventing the fish kills that can occur when large quantities of too-hot water (from parking lots, rooftops and roadways) are quickly channeled into a colder body of water. Cattail marshes and wet meadows, in particular, also filter nitrates, pesticides and other toxins from water, sending cleaner water downstream and into underground aquifers.

For myself, wetlands, whether they be swamps, marshes, bogs, fens or lake-plain prairies, will still be most noticeably valuable as havens for wildlife, providing food, nesting areas and migration rest stops for literally thousands of species of birds, mammals, fish, frogs, snakes, turtles, insects. . . you get the picture. If you ask me, that’s what wetlands are FOR.

- Janea Little, CNC Senior Naturalist

Meandering down the River

Each year, Chippewa Nature Center offers a variety of programs designed for people to experience our local rivers. When you hop in a kayak or canoe and float down the current, you're quickly reminded how everything is literally connected to one another. Pollution upstream on the Pine River in the 1970s still affects all of us downstream today. Exotic species such as sea lamprey and carp have traveled up waterways and now live in our rivers. Plants such as Eurasian Water Milfoil grow in the river and Dame's Rocket, while beautiful, blankets the riverbanks and chokes out native vegetation. While it can be easy to focus on problems, riding the river gives us a chance to relax and experience nature at its own pace. Birds such as kingfishers, herons, ducks and eagles call our rivers home. Especially at dusk and dawn, mink and muskrat, deer and raccoons are commonly seen by quiet paddlers. Turtles and fish swim beneath you and insects, such as dragonflies and damselflies, alight with gossamer wings on your bow. If you see trash in the river, stop and scoop it up. CNC conducts a River Cleanup Workday each July, but you don't have to wait for us! While we'd love you to join us, every little act of kindness towards Mother Earth benefits all her creatures. Why not plan a river trip today and see how YOU can make a difference!

Worth a Thousand Words

Our blog is three months old already! Since early March, we've shared lots of info and links on a wide variety of topics. So enough with the words. Enjoy these "green scenes" then go for a walk outside!

Organic Lawns Made Easy

Green lawns seem to be a rite of spring and part of summertime fun. But creating that suburban dream can come at a big cost to the environment and the wild animals that call our yards home. Going organic and still having a green lawn isn't just a pipe dream, it can become your reality! So forget the synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides this year and begin the transition to organic. The following tips are quoted from "Six Tips for a Lawn You'll Love" by Fern Bradley. Fern is one of the editors of the Reader's Digest All-New Guide to Gardening and has a number of posts on the Reader's Digest Living Healthy Blog. 1. Leave it long to prosper. One of the simplest changes is to start letting your grass grow longer—3 inches long—before you mow it. And when you do mow, never remove more than one-third of the height at one time. This stresses the grass less, and the longer lawn naturally shades out weeds. 2. Stop bagging the clippings. Grass clippings are natural fertilizer. Leave them in place each time your mow, and in the course of a year, they’ll add roughly 2 pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet to your lawn. 3. Spread compost. Stop applying chemical fertilizer and substitute compost instead. Apply screened compost at least once a year, spreading a layer that’s no more than 1/4-inch thick. You can do the job by hand with a rake or use a drop spreader. 4. Water deeply. If you must irrigate your lawn, be prepared to soak it thoroughly. This will encourage roots to grow deeper into the soil, and that strengthens your lawn over time. 5. Overseed for a lusher lawn. If your lawn seems sparse, perhaps it just needs more grass plants! You can apply more grass seed right to your existing lawn. It may help to aerate or dethatch your lawn before you spread the seed. Fall is the right time to overseed cool-season grasses; spring for warm-season grasses. 6. Diagnose problems before you treat. If your lawn is looking sickly with patches of dying or dead grass or other unusual symptoms, make sure you diagnose the problem properly before you try to treat it. Gardening reference books like the All-New Illustrated Guide to Gardening include charts of lawn pest and disease symptoms and treatments, or try taking a digital photo of the problem and e-mail it to your local cooperative extension service for a diagnosis.