Coyotes on the Plane; Releases in the Wild

David Beard Jul 18, 2014 1 Comment


Wildwoods Critters

Yoti Coyote hopped a plane for Boston. We had a bit of stress initially at the Duluth Airport getting his flight squared away, but eventually, all was fine. Delta staff, esp. Scott, were just wonderful. And Trudy kept Yoti very calm, holding him and rocking him softly until he fell asleep. She is so kind and maternal to all of the critters. Of course, we couldn’t help but worry about him all afternoon, even though he was on the shortest possible flight. Our imaginations always run amok. Shara promised to text us as soon as she had him, and she did, and all was well, of course! (This update really wasn’t supposed to be about Yoti, but well, he just crept in. He’s good at that!)

In the meantime–releases! We released 3 robins a few days ago, including the one who had funky butt bumps from parasitic flukes. The bumps disappeared after treatment with antiparasitics and he and his buddies were good to go! Yesterday, the little chipping sparrow who came in with an injured wing was released, and today, one of the flickers graduated. And all of the mice are grown and gone. Yay! 2 more robins are almost ready. We are going through scads of earthworms and mealworms.

The little squirrel in the picture is a young Franklin’s ground squirrel. We love these little guys! They whistle like birds, live in colonies, and spend a lot of their life underground and hibernating. They are omnivorous, and eat not only greens and other veggies, but also love insects and grubs. Plus, they have the coolest mutton chop whiskers. Read more about them here.

We also have a baby chipmunk, 6 little eyes-closed red squirrels, 3 young voles, bunches of young cottontails, and 9 young raccoons.

We got a young Cooper’s hawk from Robin yesterday. And of course, we have lots and lots of recuperating pigeons!

And I think that’s everyone!

—Wildwoods

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about 10 years ago 

And, an update that's less upbeat, but with an important educational mission.

...

Renee cleans houses for a living. In the garage of one of the houses she was cleaning today, she found a glue board with a little northern red belly snake stuck to it, along with a pill bug and a few other insects. She rushed the glue board and snake over to us to see if we could get the snake free. However, by the time she got here, the snake was dead, likely of stress, fear, and exhaustion. 

Glue boards are totally inhumane. They are indiscriminate in what they catch, and even if they catch what you want them to catch, the suffering and slow deaths they cause are absolutely unconscionable. 

If you have rodents in your house, figure out where they are getting in (place live traps, check them regularly, release the mice or rats in the woods a ways away, and see which locations are getting the most action), and then find the entry place and fix it. (I'm speaking with the voice of experience; our house used to be infested with mice. We caught and released HUNDREDS of mice. I wish I were kidding. We figured out where they were getting in and fixed the problem. Now we get an occasional mouse finding their way in in fall, but that's it. These problems are fixable!)

If you've got an insect problem, find out what's attracting them. Always address root causes, don't just kill, kill, kill, because more will take their place and the cycle will continue. You won't fix anything, and plus, IMO, it's bad for your soul. You feel angry and you get trapped in this cycle of anger and killing and death. 

All creatures, including mice, have a purpose in this world. We do not want most creatures, even the ones we love, like elephants, living in our house. Even if you do not love mice, they are food for many creatures you may love--owls, foxes, etc. We just need to find ways to keep them out of our houses. This is doable!

If you've got an insect problem, find out what's attracting them. Always address root causes, don't just kill, kill, kill, because more will take their place and the cycle will continue. You won't fix anything, and plus, IMO, it's bad for your soul. You feel angry and you get trapped in this cycle of anger and killing and death. Insects also serve a purpose, and are food for the songbirds many of us love. We just need to find ways to keep them outside. Again, killing doesn't address root cause of how they got in or why they are there. 

However you decide to address a problem of unwanted critters in your house, please, please, please never use glue traps. They are one of the cruelest devices we have ever seen anywhere, right up there with snares and foothold traps. Thanks so much for listening, folks.



RIP, poor little snake...

--Signed, the founders of Wildwoods

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