Urban Wildlife Rescue

Introduction

People love to be outdoors in the Coulee Region, especially during our warm weather months. Outdoor recreation activities like picnics, barbeques, swimming, hunting, fishing, boating, gardening, hiking and camping are very popular. Lots of folks enjoy simply watching wildlife. Nest boxes for birds, bats and other wildlife and feeders of all kinds are common back yard items purchased or constructed by many people. Americans spend large amounts of money feeding wildlife -- primarily birds.

Sometimes wildlife interferes with human activities. Wildlife can dig up our gardens and landscape plants, and eat or damage our fruit, flowers and vegetables. When wildlife populations overlap into places where they are unwanted or cause damage to property, they are no longer appreciated and can quickly be thought of as a nuisance.

You can do something

These pages and links offer many options and ideas to help people cope with wildlife problems in our area. Here some simple guidelines to assist people with ideas to co-exist with, exclude or evict critters when areas of use overlap.

Squirrels          Raccoons        Bats

Skunks             Foxes        Snakes

Beavers        Pigeons

Wildlife needs three things to thrive -- shelter, water and food. Remove these and the animals will go somewhere else. Remember to treat the problem not the symptom.

Any undertaking to make a habitat unattractive to nuisance wildlife species will also discourage wildlife that people may appreciate or be trying to attract to a back yard habitat. It is often difficult or impossible to both create habitat for wildlife you want to encourage and, at the same time, remove habitat to discourage wildlife. The animals cannot tell the difference and often you will be left with both attracting wildlife and dealing with nuisance species in the same habitat. You can enhance your enjoyment of wildlife by following some of the tips listed.

Without habitat (such as, cover to hide in or food to eat) the animal will likely leave. Remember this simple equation: No cover = no mice = no snakes.

Some of this information was provided by the Urban Wildlife Rescue, Inc.

http://www.urbanwildliferescue.org

Wild Baby Animals

When a nest of babies is discovered unharmed and not in harm’s way it is best to leave the nest and babies alone.   Keep children and pets away from the nest.  In many cases, it is illegal to disturb nests.

When a nest or babies are found on the ground carefully move the nest and/or baby(s) out of any direct danger (i.e. street, sidewalk, playground, etc).  Keep it in the area where it was found as to make it easy for the parents to find the nest or baby(s).  Watch periodically from a distance, often parent squirrels and some other animals will carry the babies to a safe location.  It may take some time for the parents to do this and they should be given a chance.  A couple or three hours would be reasonable for them to accomplish this task.  Should the baby or nest remain and no parents are seen, call Animal Control for advice.  Again, children and pets should be kept away. 

When babies are found in construction areas or home improvement projects search for some reasonable way to move the babies to a safe location very near the nest’s original place.  The parents will likely move them to a new nesting location.  Watch from a distance and call Animal Control should the parents abandon the babies.  Sometimes, it is possible to leave a nest right where it is and work around it.  See if a reasonable solution can be worked out for the animal’s sake. 

Call Animal Control whenever baby animals are very cold to the touch, sickly, or injured.  Animal Control may retrieve the animals in the cities of La Crosse and Onalaska.  This service for wild animals is not currently available to the townships. 

Wild Ducks

Nesting ducks should be left alone.  The eggs will hatch on the 28th day from the time the last egg is laid.  The hen and her brood will leave the nest as soon as possible.  Be patient and do not draw attention to the nest.  Discourage people from putting out water/food bowls or the like.  Do not allow pets to roam freely in the yard while the hen is nesting and remind children to not bother the hen. 

As hens may return to the same nesting location from year to year, you may want to consider taking measures to prevent them from building a nest there again.  You may place a large object in the previous year’s location (i.e. basketball, cement block, lawn ornament, etc.) or cover it with mesh wire excluding the hen from nesting in that location again.  If you notice a hen building a nest do the same before any eggs are laid.  Hens often build nests in locations near pedestrian traffic putting them in harms way.  Such areas may also be excluded.

Abandoned ducklings can be brought to the shelter.  Gently place the ducklings in a covered box and bring them in to the shelter.  Keep the ducklings warm and as dry as possible and do not feed them.  Animal Control will retrieve abandoned ducklings in the cities of La Crosse and Onalaska. We can often reunite them with their own hen or release them with another hen when available.

Ducks in traffic are common calls in the spring and summer.  Animal Control will retrieve live adult ducks that have been injured by traffic and hens with ducklings in high traffic.  Animal Control may not respond to hens in low traffic neighborhoods depending on the circumstances (i.e. foster hens are not needed, ducks are not in clear danger, or Animal Control is busy with priority calls).  

Wood ducks are difficult to catch and readily abandon their ducklings when approached.  Leave wood duck hens walking with ducklings alone.  Chances are, the hen will fly away and abandon her ducklings.

People who own ponds can cover them to prevent mallards and other waterfowl from disturbing the pond, its plants and fish.  Suggested covers can be old screen door or ¼ in. wire mesh nailed to a wooden frame.  Simply scaring the ducks away may work, but you need to be persistent about it.  Wind socks and other lawn ornaments may be helpful at first, but are generally ineffective as the birds do become accustomed to such things. 

Wild animals in a house or building

When you find yourself with wild animals such as squirrels, bats, and birds in your house open as many windows and doors as possible and let the creature out.  Immediately get all pets confined to a room away from the wild animal to avoid contact.  Watch the animal and close off rooms to narrow the animals escape routes.  Turn on lights to help you keep track of the animal.   Do not attempt to catch the animal, but simply let it out or chase it out.  It does not behoove anyone to lock the wild creature in.  It will likely cause damage to belongings.  If all attempts fail or there is some reason to believe there is a health concern or bite involved, Animal Control should be called for assistance.

Wildlife Rehabilitation

Wild animals cannot legally be rehabilitated by an unlicensed person.  The Coulee Region Humane Society does temporarily house some injured animals, however, we do not rehabilitate baby wild animals.  We do work with area veterinarians and rehabilitation facilities to seek the best care for animals brought to us.  The Coulee Wildlife Rehabilitation Center may be called at (608) 483-2610 to discuss options other than what we provide.

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Date Last Modified 04/11/2007