Transcript
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Welcome to the Starlight Pet Talk podcast, where we'll talk about and explore ways to help pet parents and future pet parents learn everything they need to know to have a happy and healthy relationship with their pet.
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Welcome to Starlight Pet Talk.
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I'm your host, amy Castro, and you know, as we humans have continued to kind of grow our cities and towns and expand our territories, the unfortunate effect of that is that we are encroaching and oftentimes destroying the natural habitats of our beloved or at least my beloved wildlife, and so one of the things that I wanted to do with this podcast episode is to talk about how we can do the right thing by our wildlife friends and coexist in a way that is good for all of us along the way.
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So what I decided to do?
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of course, as you all have met in the first episode of the podcast, my best friend, bev Bev you want to stick your head in on the video.
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Say hi Bev, my best friend.
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Bev volunteers at this awesome place in Cape Cod where she lives, called Wild Care of Cape Cod, and so I asked her if she would be so kind as to ask the director, stephanie Ellis, to be a guest on the show.
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So Stephanie is joining us here today to tell us some of the do's and don'ts and how we can do the right thing by our wildlife companions.
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So, stephanie, thank you for being here today.
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Thank you for inviting me.
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I'm excited.
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I definitely appreciate you being here.
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I think that people they want to do the right thing, but they don't necessarily know what to do.
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So what I wanted to start off talking about was what are some of the biggest mistakes that people make when it comes to just generally living amongst wildlife?
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Sure.
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So when people find wildlife, for example when people find turtles crossing the road, one of the biggest mistakes is that they move it to a new location, and so you might have a situation where Eastern box turtles, for example they are a species of special concern here and they are not an aquatic turtle.
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So if they see a box turtle on the road and then move it to the water, that's not appropriate habitat.
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So the kindest thing they can do and should do there is just to help the turtle to cross the road to the other side.
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It was headed, so that's one nice thing that we can do for turtles.
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Also, we see a lot of people who unfortunately use rodenticides, which is the mouse and rat poison which can cause secondary poisoning to wildlife.
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Also, glue traps are harmful to wildlife And there are many, many alternatives, humane and environmentally safe alternatives.
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Another thing we see a lot and I know that people mean well, it comes from a good place, but when people find baby birds, baby swirls, they tend to feed them or give them water, and that is not a good thing to do, because if the babies are, if they're, hypothermic, they're not going to be able to digest, to process the water, or if they have internal or external injuries and they can't process food.
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That can actually cause more harm than good.
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So I know that people feel like they're being kind, but if you find a baby animal, the kindest thing you can do is get it warm, keep it warm, quiet and contact a local wildlife rehabilitator.
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Yeah, and that's something I know down in Texas that we run into that a lot is.
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You know, people are I mean, it's a baby and they want to do the right thing and they see them as being so vulnerable.
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Many times people will say to me well, you know, i haven't seen them, the mom, or I haven't seen any other birds around, so it must be abandoned.
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Is that necessarily true?
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Not in all cases.
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No, i'm so glad that you asked that.
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In the case of baby birds, if they're well feathered and they're bright and alert and the parents are around feeding them, that would be likely a fledgling bird And all species are different.
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but most songbirds they're on the ground before they can actually fly, except for birds like swifts and swallows, really truly aerial birds that eat all of their meals on the wing.
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They don't leave the nest until they can fly And so, but most birds, like your robins and your grackles, they leave the nest and they're well feathered.
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they're huge, sometimes they're bigger than the parents, but they can't fly yet and that's normal.
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So what we do is, when people call, we ask them you know, please watch, is it bright and alert?
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Are the parents nearby feeding it?
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Can you keep your dog and cat?
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and you know, for the next few days?
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That's the tricky part, especially down by us.
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It's not even about keeping your own personal pets in.
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It's the neighborhood cats that people are always super worried about, and I kind of never.
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Well, first of all, i always tell them to call wildlife rehab, but it's like what if a cat gets it?
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I don't know what to say.
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I don't know what to tell them.
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I know It's so hard and we have.
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We certainly have those challenges here.
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And then sometimes people just feel like, oh my God, i have to do something, that the parents are here, but this poor, helpless baby.
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And so we'll say, if we think it's appropriate, it's a fledgling we'll say, put gloves on and put it in a, you know, a low bush for the night, so at least it's up off the ground and has a little bit of a chance.
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But most of the time we ask people to send photos because we'll often know right away.
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And, of course, if it has wounds or it's been in your cat's mouth, we're going to want you to bring the animal to us, right.
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And then baby rabbits are a great example.
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We get a lot of those too, because we have Eastern cottontails here and the mother is never at the nest.
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She nurses the young usually twice a night, so at dusk and dawn.
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So people find a nest in the backyard which is basically like a little scrape in the vegetation with some fur and some dried grass, and they see these babies and say, oh my God, there's no mom.
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And so what we do is we tell people cover it back up, take some string or some yarn and make like a crystal, tic-tac-toe or a crisscross pattern, lay that over the nest, check in the morning and then like, leave them alone And then check in the morning And if that pattern has been moved then we know that mom was there to nurse them.
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And if the pattern, if that crisscross or tic-tac-toe pattern, hasn't moved, then they might be in need of help.
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But of course you know if the dog has been handling them.
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I haven't had that in a long time.
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Yes, it's not good Dogs love baby rabbits and they nest rabbits nest all around us.
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This one that my dogren found, unfortunately, was right in the middle of the yard, like literally in the middle of the backyard had been mowed fairly recently.
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It's like, yeah, it's interesting that you say that, because a lot of the rabbit babies that we get, the orphans, they're from dog yards.
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The nests were in the dog yard, so we're actually thinking of that as significant, perhaps the rabbits nest where dogs are, because dogs keep out large predators.
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I mean it makes sense really, Except then the dog often becomes the predator.
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So the number one reasons we get baby rabbits is dog attack, cat attack and then sadly, lawnmower and weed whackers I've had kittens like that even Have you really?
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Oh, my goodness, they got me whacked and that usually it's in bushes where somebody's kind of doing the edging of the landscaping.
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But yeah, i remember I don't know if you remember Bev years ago, but we had, and it was too little to be stitched or anesthetized, so the poor little thing was like super glued together.
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But he's not.
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Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, he gets a little scars, but yeah, must have hurt.
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I made it, you made it.
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So we usually ask people, before you mow, to check for nests, and also, before you set your brush piles on fire, please dismantle them and look for babies.
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We get a lot of brush pile babies that have been burned every year.
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Oh, well not a lot, but enough, and you don't want it to happen.
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It's a thing.
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Yeah, that's a good point.
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I hadn't thought about that, because we do a lot of burning down down where I am as well.
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That actually makes me wonder.
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As far as like trees, you know it's the type of well, it's probably a little late now, but maybe not for you here on the East Coast to be trimming trees, cutting trees, getting rid of branches, things like that.
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What should people watch out for there?
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Yes, so that is such a great question.
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Right now it's like the worst time to be cutting down trees, because everything's nesting All of our songbirds.
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We still have squirrels nesting, and so we usually tell people to reserve their tree felling and trimming until late fall and winter, which I know those aren't the times that people want to be outdoors doing it, but those are the safest times for wildlife.
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So right now, if you must fell a tree or trim trees and bushes, check for nests.
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If there are any hollows in the tree, check for nests, woodpecker activity, screech owl activity, things like that, and those are simple things that people can do.
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That just takes a little bit of time and you could save lives.
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Right, yeah, i can't imagine.
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I've never had this happen to be.
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but I can't imagine, after you've already done what you've done, then to discover it.
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it's like you know, be sure to look for it first, and sometimes people just they don't they're not thinking about it, they're just thinking Hey this is just some tree in my yard.
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I want to trim some branches.
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Exactly, You know you've knocked somebody out of his home, which is not not cool or not fun Totally.
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Are there any other mistakes people make when they come across wildlife?
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Yes, So a lot of times people will keep wildlife.
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You know, they find a baby squirrel in the backyard and it's starving, and they start for great YouTube videos.
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Yes, right, nice selfies.
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Exactly.
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And so they raise the baby squirrel and they feed it inappropriate diet and it doesn't fare well for the animals.
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Also, now you, if you release that animal, you have a habituated animal that might be approaching your neighbors and they might not think it's so cute to have this world climbing on them.
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Also, what happens to us is we have a lot of people who they find a baby squirrel, they feed it all kinds of junk or it's injured, and then a few weeks later, when it's not doing well, they take it to us.
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And now we have this squirrel that sometimes is on death door, sometimes they die, and then you know we're to blame.
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But in fact, if that squirrel would have been brought to us two weeks ago, because we're licensed rehabilitators, it would have received medical care, proper nutrition, so just really just all around.
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It is not good to keep wildlife as pets And also you might be keeping an endangered species.
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For all you know, it is illegal to keep most wildlife in the state of Massachusetts.
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Yes, And it is in Texas too.
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I think people they think they're doing it a favor or, like you said, it's cute and I can have this unusual pet.
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But I think what we need to do is stop thinking about ourselves and think more about what's the right thing for that animal and squirrels are not pets, and neither are raccoons or any of the other things that some people try to make into pets.
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Exactly, and they need to be with cons specifics.
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So raising a squirrel on your own, it's going to imprint on you.
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When they grow up and become territorial, that is no longer a nice pet And so if it was brought here or would have other squirrels that it lives within, is released with so that it exhibits appropriate behaviors in the wild.
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It's so, so important, and there are so many rescue organizations across the US where you can adopt, you know, domestic turtles that need homes or domestic rabbits that need homes, so there's really there's no excuse for taking wildlife from the wild and keeping it.
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Yeah, that's a good point.
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I hadn't even thought about that.
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It's like you know, the baby squirrel is all cute and then it gets to be like a teenage squirrel and hormones kick in and now the squirrel's got an attitude and it's doing whatever squirrels do.
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That's not appropriate to be in my house or with my kids or whatever it is.
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Now I want to toss it out because it's.
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You know it's a squirrel.
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Would just put it outside, but it's.
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It has no clue, because you've you've raised it like it's a human and now you're expecting it to suddenly know how to be a squirrel.
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You've yet again done it in a disservice by doing that.
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Yeah.
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So it comes from a place of kindness, but it's not the right thing to do, and if any of you need a pet, i can direct you to an appropriate excuse for the appropriate type of pet that you're looking for.
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You can find something cuddly that's not supposed to be in the wild, definitely good advice.
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So just kind of taking that a step back with the whole concept of of living amongst wildlife, that sometimes the calls that we, that we get, and when I used to volunteer at animal school, you know people don't want that possum in their backyard because it's ugly or it's scary, or they don't want that snake because my kids play out there and it's like but it's a rat snake, it's not going to, you know, it's not going to go after your kids.
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What are you know?
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what advice would you have?
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or how?
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how do you think maybe we can kind of get through to people on that issue so that they realize that you moved here and this is where the wildlife are and it's not good to just get rid of them and move them somewhere else.
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Exactly.
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Yes, we also get that And, like you said, they were here first.
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I mean no possums, they've been around for over 60 million years.
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Oh wow, i didn't know that.
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And yes, they're, and relatively unchanged They're like they couldn't evolve to look any better?
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And to learn how to cross the road?
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maybe Yeah, Unless we have that Xarma Dilla's down by us.
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Oh right, i think, because we're just evolving too quickly.
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but I like to remind people.
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I mean, with the human encrotron, animals have no place to go.
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And so I think of when an animal is crossing the road, are they really crossing the road?
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They're crossing the forest that used to be there, right?
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And so every animal has so much value ecologically, like if we were to remove one creature, you know that would have a trickle effect on so many others, and so I feel like just teaching people how to coexist, like the opossums in the backyard there.
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I tell people their nature's cleanup crew.
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So they're cleaning up, like the carcasses and the trash, but also they eat thousands of ticks in a season, so that's beneficial.
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And how are they harming us?
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I mean, they're causing, they're passing through your yard and doing their thing, so they're really not a threat to anyone or anything.
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I think people so down by us?
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I think sometimes they get worried about the you know burrowing under the house, and is that going to impact my house?
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in some way Or like.
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I told you before we started recording that you know one went underneath.
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I've got videos still of it, with it going under there with babies on its back and underneath my deck But my dog crazy.
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They're bouncing fence on the deck Like he was going to get through the deck to get to them.
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But it was a little annoying, but it does pass.
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It does pass, And that's a good point, because there are so many ways that you can deter animals I mean, if you do have a fox's nesting that are thinking about nesting under your deck, we have ways to discourage them.
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It's things like putting out racks of ammonia, making loud noise, playing radio at you know during the day when they're trying to sleep, things like that to discourage them without harming them.
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And these things do work.
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But sometimes they take persistence And I feel like we, as humans, we want an instant solutions for things.
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Yeah.
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Exactly So.
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we have a lot of resistance, but then can have long term effects.
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especially, exclusion is really important.
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So now the fox has moved on from under your deck, We need to exclude that area so the fox doesn't think about coming back next season, so you, know the chicken wire, the concrete, whatever.
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that's a small investment that will go a long way And just a circle back.
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you mentioned relocation.
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Yes, Because we unfortunately a lot of our animal control in order to appease the residents and maybe out of their own, and I don't mean ignorance in an ugly way, but just lack of knowledge on what happens.
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If you just move an animal to another part of town, is that they'll sure will come pick it up and we take it and we bring it and we release it behind animal control, you know, and it could be a half a mile away, it could be 10 miles away from where it originally came from And people, i think, think well, it's the same kind of trees, it's the same kind of plants, it's a subdivision, it's a subdivision.
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What difference does it make?
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Yeah, It makes a huge difference for that animal.
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We also see this in the state of Massachusetts.
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It's illegal to relocate any animals, So if you are a homeowner and you trap mice on your property, the only place you can release them is back on your property.
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And so what we see especially right now is people they think they're doing something kind So they think, oh, I didn't kill the animal.
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I just moved it to the next town, right?
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Well, guess what?
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Right now, everyone has babies.
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So if you're trapping that mama raccoon that was in the chimney and moving it to the next state, it probably has babies in the chimney.
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So, abandoned men, orphans we've created orphans.
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But also, as you mentioned, if you move an adult animal to a new location, this is a territory that is unknown.
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They don't know the predators, they don't know the foraging.
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They're in a new territory of another raccoon.
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The likelihood of survival is low.
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So actually it's an incredibly unkind thing to do.
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The best thing to do is the deterrence.
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Try to encourage them to move on, accept your exclusion, your barriers, which means capping your chimney.
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After all, the raccoons and their kids are out, things like that.
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And so in this, really this bothers us also because we're here for the animals that really need to be here.
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We are not a repository for I'm having flashbacks of companion animal rescue because it's.
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the parallels are incredible, really.
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It's like those cats are.
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You've been feeding that mama cat and you now have the babies and I'm trying to save the ones that are, you know, stuffed up in a semi, that are getting ready to go across the country and die, and I'm not taking the cats you've been feeding, or I don't want to anyway.
00:18:10.619 --> 00:18:12.316
Yeah, it's frustrating.
00:18:12.871 --> 00:18:18.234
It's so frustrating Like we are not a repository for people's problem animals.
00:18:18.234 --> 00:18:28.316
They need to understand that those animals are important, They're there for a reason and how to live with them and exclude them from their home or dwellings So challenging.
00:18:28.316 --> 00:18:40.450
And we as rehabbers, we're required in the state to release animals within five miles of where they were found And we try, we try to release all adult animals right back where they were found because they might have a mate.
00:18:40.450 --> 00:18:41.713
They know the territory.
00:18:41.713 --> 00:18:43.619
All the reasons that I expressed.
00:18:44.211 --> 00:18:45.656
And you had mentioned the predators too.
00:18:45.656 --> 00:18:50.309
They kind of know who's in the hood you know, or what kind of animals are here?
00:18:50.309 --> 00:18:57.750
Whereas if you move, even just with the dogs and cats, it's like I might know the way that this dog acts or that this dog doesn't bother me in this backyard where I live.
00:18:57.750 --> 00:19:04.703
But now you've shifted me over here and I go under this fence thinking, oh, I'm going into a safe yard and it's not as safe as you think.
00:19:05.992 --> 00:19:21.589
And I think I think that's an interesting or, i guess, a key point to make for everybody is that in the attempt to do the right thing and relocate the animal And what we hear a lot is well, i don't want it to die, i don't want my dog to kill it, or I don't want you to take it and euthanize it Do you relocate it?
00:19:21.589 --> 00:19:24.029
And it's like it's going to be the same end result if you do that.
00:19:24.029 --> 00:19:35.780
So you either need to decide you're going to put this animal to a death sentence basically, which may be illegal where you live in a lot of places, or you need to adapt yourself and maybe go through a little bit of inconvenience.
00:19:35.780 --> 00:19:39.580
It can be a death sentence for sure if you move them.
00:19:40.269 --> 00:19:45.663
You had mentioned some good advice as far as what to do when you find baby animals and not feeding them and things like that.
00:19:45.663 --> 00:19:48.289
What about just feeding wildlife in general?
00:19:48.289 --> 00:19:55.650
Because that's another thing I see a lot, whether it's people in our hill country in Texas or, you know, outside of the Houston area.
00:19:55.650 --> 00:20:03.143
So let's say you know, anywhere two hours outside and beyond, they're going to have a pretty good deer population, and so it's like they're feeding the deer corn.
00:20:03.143 --> 00:20:04.167
They're feeding the animals.
00:20:04.167 --> 00:20:11.432
This, i'm feeding the duck's bread, some good old Wonder Bread, or Mrs Bairds We'll get Mrs Bairds down by us And it's.
00:20:11.432 --> 00:20:13.410
You know, they think they're doing the right thing by doing that.
00:20:13.410 --> 00:20:16.420
Should we be feeding wildlife or should we let nature take its course?
00:20:17.030 --> 00:20:17.271
Right.
00:20:17.271 --> 00:20:23.454
I don't think we should be feeding wildlife other than backyard bird feeders, which has been shown.
00:20:23.454 --> 00:20:28.478
You know, if you keep up the sanitization, make sure your bird feeders and your bird bats are clean.
00:20:28.478 --> 00:20:33.910
We like to think that birds are dependent on our feeders, but they're actually not.
00:20:33.910 --> 00:20:39.748
They're getting everything they need from the environment And this is a supplement which can help them, especially when they're raising babies.
00:20:39.748 --> 00:20:55.540
Yeah, we get into problems with people feeding mammals, and a lot of mammals are more solitary And then when you're feeding them, you create these abnormal congregations of animals, which then more potential for spreading disease.
00:20:55.540 --> 00:21:04.538
Also, mammals become more habituated to people, where now you have situations of foxes approaching children for food and things like that.
00:21:04.538 --> 00:21:10.042
We have a problem with that here on our outer cape where people feed the coyotes.
00:21:10.042 --> 00:21:16.787
Sadly, we've had a few really terrible incidents which resulted in the coyotes being destroyed.
00:21:16.787 --> 00:21:17.990
Yeah, see, that's the thing.
00:21:18.150 --> 00:21:24.549
Now you get bitten or you get scratched or whatever, and now that animal has to sacrifice its life because you couldn't just leave it alone.
00:21:24.549 --> 00:21:25.433
Just leave it alone, people.
00:21:26.071 --> 00:21:33.390
Exactly, and so I think those two incidents were a real wake of call, i think, for all of the people here.
00:21:33.390 --> 00:21:35.829
But it's very sad And we love our coyotes.
00:21:35.829 --> 00:21:44.384
It's a nature-loving community But also feeding them hot dogs and Wonder Bread is not helping them.
00:21:44.510 --> 00:21:45.535
I'm certainly not good at that.
00:21:45.535 --> 00:21:46.173
I'm kidding.
00:21:46.173 --> 00:21:49.214
Do you feed your kids hot dogs and Wonder Bread on the tongue?
00:21:49.214 --> 00:21:49.996
Probably not.
00:21:49.996 --> 00:21:51.599
Some of them, not all the time.
00:21:51.599 --> 00:21:56.950
Sure, some people do, otherwise they wouldn't exist, right, but that's a good point.
00:21:56.950 --> 00:22:08.601
It's just not species appropriate, and we've talked about that on the podcast quite a bit, about even just what's appropriate for our cats and dogs and their own dog food that we're paying 80 bucks a bag for.
00:22:09.191 --> 00:22:15.806
Now you're going to take some creature you know nothing about and just feed it random stuff, like I was flipping through TikTok.
