By Anne Muller
As soon as the weather warms up, more folks are outside hiking and biking, strolling, and encountering wild animals who need help! Wildlife Watch’s national mnemonic number, 877 WILDHELP, is given out by game agencies, veterinary offices, police, and folks who find it online.
This year has been no exception. As always, fawns, Canada geese, turtles, fledglings and bunnies have been the species we’ve had the most calls about.
Much injury and death of wildlife is caused accidentally by drivers. While it’s upsetting when it happens accidentally, it’s infuriating when it happens intentionally.
Normally, youngsters follow their moms onto the roads, so the mother is likely the first to be struck, leaving the surviving young ones without direction. Unfortunately, speed limits increase significantly in areas where it’s more likely that wildlife will be killed. Have you noticed that the more rural the area, the higher the speed limit?
One caller said she witnessed a Canada goose being struck on the road by a driver who indifferently hit the goose. She sent this photo and report:
A car driving by hit the mother as the babies were following her across the road. The driver just drove off.
The goose is alive, but bleeding from the beak and can’t walk. I have her in my car.
Wildlife Watch provided several numbers of wildlife rehabbers, but in a short time, a veterinary hospital said they would take the goose.
We’re following up with the caller and hoping that this particular goose can have a chance at life again and be reunited with her family. Sadly, in a follow-up text we learned the mom will never fly again.
The heavy flooding in May in the Mid-Hudson Valley, which is where we’re located, caused the rivers to rise with strong currents. It put water where it hadn’t been before. Calls came in about disoriented goslings that had become separated from their parents and siblings and found themselves far from water when the water receded.
The good news is that Canada geese are magnanimous and they will adopt the goslings of other adults. We suggested that they find a flock and let the goslings go to them. That explains why you see so many goslings with two adults.
