Another thought struck me when I was editing this is whether the same phenomenon described in this podcast makes it so much easier at this time of year for some people to assume that young of multiple wild and domestic species need human care. Every spring wildlife officials, veterinarians, and humane societies receive their share of calls or visits from kind-hearted folks who have “rescued” animals whose mothers, these folks are convinced, either abandoned their offspring or succumbed to some horrible fate. In some cases, the parent or parents were frightened off by the rescuers and are hiding nearby waiting for that person to leave. In other cases, those folks interrupted a female who was in the process of moving her young to a new nesting or denning location. The urge to nurture is so great these folks can’t bear to take the time necessary to verify this, although some of them may not want to either.
Below are photos of the toys who performed in this podcast. Those in the picture on the left are the ones Frica is apt to play with at any time of year. The two on the right are resurrected primarily in the spring. The plant is merely there to hold the toys up. 🙂
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