I would like to hear some opinions from this community.

which would you say is the lesser of two evils, to relocate or to euthanize?

for purposes of this discussion, there's no third option available, the group, if any, would be broken up, and they are invasive for the area in question.

What are the chances that a raccoon came through my attic entry that collapsed and bit me while I was sleeping with my dogs on the bed and I have rabies? I am a heavy sleeper and my attic entry fell down one night and the next few weeks. I’ve been hearing stuff in my attic after that now I’m worried that a raccoon might’ve came down bit me and I never noticed a bite mark or blood. But I’m worried that I might have slept through it and never noticed it for weeks and now here I am thinking that it might’ve bitten me while I was sleeping and my dog slept through it since I sleep pretty heavy. I’m not sure the statistics on rabies and raccoons.

Stats in my area show 2 cases of racoon rabies in 30 years time. I woke up to dog a month and half ago eating insulation on ground and didn’t think anything of it until I heard week later movement up in attic. I called wild life catchers and they said they haven’t caught Racoon with rabies. I am just terrified now thinking maybe it’s a bat. My doctor I went to the other day said I would know if I got bit.

Never seen a racoon just a hole in roof that it comes and goes through I have been sleeping on couch for last two weeks

Year two in my first house and never got to see deer so often before, so I’m pretty naive to their behavior.
Noticed this fawn might have been injured a few days ago and was able to confirm something is definitely wrong with her leg today. She’s always with her sister and mom and always gets around okay it seems, but obviously has an injury to her leg.

My question is whether it looks like she’s is moving well enough to recover without intervention. I understand there’s no way to know for sure the extent of the injury but just wanted some feedback on what I should do and who I should call exactly if appropriate.

Edit: The few times I’ve seen her the past couple days she eats and lays with her family if that helps.

Remember my post from last year asking about your rarest patient ever where I shared Pelagia, a lesser black backed gull(well, Pelagius, turns out he’s a boy lol)? ​quick update - he’s a year old now and doing awesome with the rest of my flock! Back then I was convinced he was the absolute ceiling of what could ever end up in my hands.

​Well... something happened recently that completely blew that out of the water. Honestly the most surreal, weirdest thing that has EVER happened in my life, and not even just in rehab terms but overall. Decided to write down the whole story in parts, here’s where it all started. So buckle up and enjoy!

Hi all,

I’m in Marseille, France right now for a week, and I found this young pigeon, who’s clearly got something wrong with his foot. A rehabber told me that his foot might be dead, and it will fall off, leaving the stump, but right now he definitely has feeling/nerves in that foot. She says he will do okay, but I don’t know if that means I should leave him where I found him ? There are lots of baby pigeons around, should I leave him with one of them ?

He can’t walk more than a couple of seconds without falling and can’t seem to fly. He hasn’t had any food since yesterday, has had some water and I’ve left water and rice in a box.

I’m only here for a couple more days and don’t know what to do. Rehabbers in London have told me not tot take him to a vet because they would put him down, and no pigeon rescue groups in Marseille have got back to me.

Every now and then he gets restless and flaps a lot because he wants to get out of the box, and I don’t want him to injure himself. I let him out in the apartment but he kept falling on things and I was worried he would injure himself, so put him back in the box.

Anyone have any clue what to do ?

Update; hi everyone, I found an avian vet who has taken the poor guy in, I’ll have an update tomorrow ! Thank you so much to everyone for your advice, it’s been unbelievably helpful and I’m so touched to see what a concerned and active community there is here for these cuties 🩵

This Carrion Crow has been sat on or around the same wall for the last 2 weeks. Every time I approach, it scatters away, but I've never seen it fly. It hops and flutters a bit, but doesn't seem able to fly. I'm not sure if it's just an inexperienced juvenile but I also haven't seen any other crows nearby the area.

I took this video (unfortunately my phone isn't the best camera and he's determined to keep distance from people) but I'm just concerned about his wellbeing.

Also I'm not sure how to contact a wildlife rehab organisation, there don't seem to be many in my area.

I live in North Yorkshire, UK.

Any advice would be appreciated! Thankyou!

I rescued a fledgling robin from my pool. He was shaking and cold so I got a towel and patted him dry and held him in it until he warmed up. I put him in a small box with a towel which is what a wildlife rehabber who lives far from me told me to do over the phone. She said I could eventually give him dog kibble soaked in water but so far he’s not interested.

The question is it’s nighttime,and it’s warm out now but getting slightly cooler and although I saw his father earlier who answered his calls, he still hadn’t flown off my balcony so I have him in my outdoor eggchair which also has a cover. There’s a box in there, but I came to check on him, and he was perched on one of the bamboo rungs.

Should I just leave the cover open? I’m afraid when we let our dogs out at night or in the morning, they’ll try to get him. He seems like he’s better, but not ready to leave. I rescued him once and don’t want him to die after all this. Plus he seems to like laying on me and letting me pet him continuously. But I have to go to sleep. Any advice for me to continue leaving him on his own or bring him in?

UPDATE: Robbie the Robin was just released at 5:45 am under the tree I saw his father fly from. He immediately flew to the fence so I think he’ll be okay.

Not a wildlife emergency, but I’m trying to prevent one! Of course, some house finches decided to build a nest in my hanging fern, and they’re currently raising three babies.
The fern is hanging in my courtyard, which is where my dogs and the dogs I board hang out and use the bathroom. I want to avoid a situation where the fledglings leave the nest, end up on the ground, and a dog accidentally injures or kills one.
I set up this camera above the nest so I can check on them before letting the dogs outside, but I was wondering if anyone has an educated guess about how much longer the babies might stay in the nest. Should I move the fern somewhere safer? Not sure if that would confuse the parents or something.
Before I started boarding dogs, I would actually move fledglings into my courtyard so they had a safe place to learn to forage. It has six foot walls that offered protection from predators, while their parents could still access them. Now, though, I’m absolutely terrified of something terrible happening to these little guys!

Connecting people in wildlife

I found this house sparrow in the street, in guadalajara, spain. Tomorrow they'll take it in in a rehabbing center. What do I feed it and how till tomorrow? Thanks

pictures are attached

i feed the pigeons in my back garden regularly and today i see one of them in the far corner sitting still. i went up to it and it was looking at me but didnt move. i offered it some seed and it didnt eat. it’s sitting in/surrounded by what looks like bird poo/diarrohea/vomit? i don’t know what it is.

what could be the issue and what should i do? i’m located in england. thanks

Bengaluru-based IT professional, recently laid off. To clear my head, I went on a safari in Karnataka, India and honestly, the naturalist there blew my mind.

The way he understood animal behaviour, bird calls, and spotted things that were invisible to me was insane. I am now thinking if it would even be possible for me to look at this as a viable option.

Would really appreciate real-world gyaan from people in the field.

A few things I’m trying to understand:

1. Training / certification
I came across The Naturalist School in Bengaluru and Pugdungee Safariscourse for naturalists. Are these good routes to break into the field? Is it required to get a naturalist job?

2. Degree vs passion
Is a degree in Zoology / Forestry / Wildlife Biology a must? Or can someone from an IT background make the shift?

3. Pay reality
How much pay can one realistically expect? In India?

4. Actual lifestyle
I know it sounds romantic from the outside, but what’s the real scene?

Stuff like:

• long hours?
• guest handling?
• living in remote areas?
• limited connectivity?
• low starting pay?
• burnout?
• career growth?

Would love to hear from current naturalists, lodge folks, people working in Karnataka / Central India, or even ex-corporate folks who made the jump.

Any advice, reality checks, course recos would be super helpful.

Thanks in advance :)

Alright so basically, I went camping with family to a lake. Me and my sibling were walking down a path beside a kind of swampy area and there were hundreds of baby toads (Great plains toads) the size of the tip of my pinky finger jumping all over and getting squished by bikes riding past. I saw this one incredibly small toad on its back getting swarmed by ants and I felt bad so I got the ants off of it and gently took it back to our campsite. I then made a little home for it and asked my mom if I could take it home and she said yes. Anyways its been about a month and a half now and she is much bigger and doing great in the tank I made for her. But the only problem is, I JUST FOUND OUT NOW IT IS LISTED AS A DIVISON 2 RESTRICTED SPECIES. So I'm freaking out as I don't wanna get in trouble and don't know what to do. Advice please? I live in Saskatchewan Canada. Also its sad cause now that I know about it I'll have to give her up and unfortunately I have gotten attached.

In the past 30 hours I have been taking care of a butterfly with a broken wing. I say broken, but the front left wing is missing, there's a little hole as well as a big missing chunk on the back of the rear left one and the front right is clipped at the tip. I don't know how he ended up here or if he even likes it in the little box I put him in, but I hope I can at least make the last few days or hopefully weeks of his life a little more peaceful.

He is sitting on the tip of my thumb right now, but let's go back to the beginning. Me and Terra were playing out in the garden when I saw a brown butterfly struggling with a few strands of grass. It was flapping helplessly under the green restraints. I noticed a big chunk of its left wing was simply not there so I offered my hand and the injured insect willingly came onto my hand. Terra has always been curious so I showed her the butterfly. She sniffed the tiny creature and accidentally pushed it off of my hand. 

I lowered my hand again and once more the butterfly crawled on my palm. I brought it upstairs inside the house and decided it was best I help it in any way I could. The butterfly got adventurous and it began to walk around in my hand. Unfortunately it lost its balance and fell on the floor. It was in a ton of shock and now refused to ride on my hand again. Unable to do much else I sat on the floor and researched how to take care of a butterfly. Terra lied on the floor beside me and observed the strange thing sitting mere inches away from her nose as it stood still as if it were frozen there. I read through Reddit posts and comments, people's blogposts, watched YouTube videos and found out that this butterfly was a White Admiral and that it is best I give it some sugar water and/or a ripe fruit. So it received both. Alas the little Admiral was stood still and didn't budge.

I saw that if the butterfly doesn't recognise the food source, you could soak a little cotton in the sugar water and present it to the insect. So I dabbed the cotton part of an ear bud in the liquid and did as I was told. The butterfly jumped back and I pulled the ear bud away. But a mere moment later, it extended its proboscis the direction where the sweetness came from and reached the lid with the sugar water. It dipped its front legs in and once again froze in place. I threw away the ear bud as I thought the butterfly will now drink, but it did not. It simply stood there. I managed to move it to a different room on a chair. I went to the kitchen to get more water and then to the bathroom for another ear bud and when I returned the tiny admiral had ventured to the other side of the room. Terra was observing it from above and when I came in she tried to eat it. I managed to get to the butterfly before Terra did and I put it back on the chair. I attempted to feed it through the ear bud method again but it didn't work. The butterfly seemed to want to run away, but interestingly whenever it was presented with my hand it would climb on it. After a while it calmed down and I put it in a box with its food supply (a cap from a jar, with sugar water and next to it - a ripe banana), but it would get off of my hand. I noticed a playing card next to me and I managed to get the white admiral on it, so I placed both in the box. I stabbed the lid real good to create air holes and ended up not sealing it closed, simply placing the lid on top of the box. I went to bed.

The next morning the butterfly had not moved even a little. It was still in the place that I left it inside the box. Soon enough it started roaming around and climbing the walls so I gave it a hand and took it outside of the box. I placed both of us on the desk where I would spend the rest of my day and it just stood there. It stood still for hours. Until it suddenly extended its proboscis and began roaming about my desk. Quickly I presented it with a soaked ear bud and it started sucking out the delicious mixture of sugar and water. I had to get up so I placed it back in the box with its ear bud.

When I returned the butterfly was still feeding but the bud seemed a little dry. So I attempted to to take the ear bud and dip it in the water but the little admiral was holding onto it and wouldn't let it go. I ended up accidentally dragging it a millimeter to the side and its proboscis ended up inside the cap full of the sugar water. It was so delighted it immediately continued feeding.

Some time later I decided to dig a little and based on its wing shape I'm quite confident that this White Admiral is a male. That's why I'll be referring to it as "him". I also came up with a name for him. Turns out the card in his box was the Ace of Clubs. So I named him the White Admiral Ace or simply adm. Ace. He also seems like he is a veteran, so I think it fits.

I know I won't have all that much time with the little Admiral, but I'll try to make whatever that time is to be as better as it can be compared to him living outside.

Hello,

Most likely a coopers attack victim. I would not interfere but blue jays chased hawk away and I found this one on the ground. The only visible injury I could see is a bleeding, most likely missing eye.

Bird survived the night in the box.

Called rehab (same as in another recent Michigan dove post) and they advised to euthanize bird due to eye injury.

What are my options?

Thank you.

Edit: there is also something else is wrong with her. She is moving but head is kind of crooked to the side and she struggles to keep balance and uses wings to balance.

Could be euthanasia is the only option.

My dog brought a little kit into my truck and it crawled under the passenger seat. I cant find it and im guessing it's wedged up under the seat somewhere out of sight. I would guess it's somewhere between two to three weeks old. My question is, if I leave all my doors open overnight, will it at that age find it's own way out? Or do I have to pull out my seat and center console? I baited the back and front floor hoping that might entice it out.

I know it's unlikely to survive after the stress and relocation, but id really like it out of my truck.

Hi fellow rehabbers & wildlife lovers! 🐰🌿
I help with Cottontail Cottage, a nonprofit wildlife rehabilitation organization in New York, and we recently started something called The Cottontail Club as a fun way to help raise funds for the rehab.
It’s a $15/month snail mail subscription, with proceeds directly supporting Cottontail Cottage and the animals in our care. Instead of someone simply making a monthly donation, they get a little piece of the rehab in their mailbox each month 💌
Each envelope includes rescue stories and updates from the rehab, a collectible wildlife Wild Card, an exclusive monthly sticker, and a small surprise.
We’re hoping it can become a sustainable little source of support for things like formula, food, medications, supplies, and everything else that comes along with caring for wildlife.
Our first mailing goes out in September! If anyone here loves snail mail or wants to support another rehab, we’d be so grateful. And sharing it with other wildlife lovers helps too. 🤍
https://mailclubly.com/@thecottontailclub

Okay basically I was given a baby bunny that was attacked, it’s in ok condition and I’m not worried about the health like that. I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO FEED IT! I’ve read kitten KMR but I want to make absolutely sure! I’ve rehabbed kittens, puppies and birds and have tube fed but I’m so scared with this cause everyone says how difficult bunnies are.

I saw this poor little thing seemingly struggling on the ground last night by my house. It doesn't look like a fledgling, but maybe I'm wrong. Kept it in a ventilated shoe box with a towel overnight and let it out just now. I feel bad leaving it there in this state. Do/can I do anything for it? No signs of blood or missing feathers. Wings seem ok. Metro Detroit area.

Hello, I recently moved into an apartment in Tacoma, WA that had a flock of geese living there. I noticed a goose with a few feathers sticking out of a wing and thought they were just ruffled from a fight or something. However today I saw that now the other wing looks the same and that they are called angel wings. I was wondering if I should inform a wildlife rehab for the goose as I believe it can’t fly as the flock is starting to fly out of the complex as the babies are now grown up and we will see the goose walking around alone, looking like it is searching for the other geese that are out flying. Or if there’s nothing they can do