(Mis)Perceptions about Native Wildlfe

All of us involved in wildlife rehabilitation have heard and seen some strange things from the public when it comes to their perceptions about native wildlife. Below are just a few anecdotes we've collected over the years that we find, shall we say, "interesting"?

The president of the Fairbanks Ranch homeowners association called several years ago with a request that our organization come trap and remove all the coyotes in Fairbanks Ranch, and replace them with foxes. It seems that the association had decided that they preferred foxes to coyotes. We declined their request.

A nest of baby finches was brought to us after being cared for by a citizen for several days. The citizen had fed them a diet of crushed bird seed, cow's milk and human spit. All babies subsequently died.

A frantic lady from Vista called to report a very strange, prehistoric-type bird, perched over-looking her horse pasture. Her concern was that this animal would attack her horses and eat her small children. From her description, this was obviously a common turkey vulture. We were successful in convincing her that the bird represented no threat to her horses or children, but were unable to convince her of how common the turkey vulture is in our area. I'm sure, to this day, she still believes she was witness to an escapee from Jurassic Park.

A citizen brought in a fledgling-age scrub jay that had been under her care for 2 weeks. The little jay was extremely malnourished, his feathers had all rotted away, and he could no longer stand or flap his wings, due to metabolic bone disease. It seems that this person had acquired a recipe for a temporary diet for songbirds. The recipe had 7 or 8 essential ingredients, but she had only 1 of the ingredients at hand. For 2 weeks, this youngster was fed egg whites- only. She stated that because she was a vegetarian, she could not find it within herself to feed him worms. While many songbirds do not eat worms, the jay does, and feeding him worms could have saved his life. He died that afternoon.

A frantic call from a gentleman with a car phone necessitated a call to our most capable wildlife transporter. He had found a "baby red-tailed hawk" down on the side of the road. He placed it unconfined in his car, at which time the bird quickly regained its strength and began flying inside the enclosed car. Our transporter, with visions of a large hawk furiously flapping inside the car, met the frightened citizen in Mira Mesa. The furious hawk turned out to be a fledgling sparrow.

A motorist saw a bobcat hit by a car on I-15. He pulled over and checked the cat's vital signs. Upon discovering no pulse or heartbeat, the man loaded the carcass into the back of his Jeep for transport to a friend who does taxidermy. After driving a few miles, the man glanced in his rearview mirror- and found himself staring into the eyes of a very much alive bobcat! He reversed his direction and headed for our facility instead. He had to drive the 20 or so miles, constantly tapping his brake pedal to keep the irate cat off his guard. The formerly dead bobcat had only minor injuries and was released within a week.

Citizens found a nestling kestrel falcon on the ground; apparently she had fallen from her nest. They called us and were told to keep the baby dark and quiet, offer her no food or liquids, and bring her to us immediately. They arrived within half an hour. Upon our examination, we discovered that the baby's crop was filled and rock hard. The couple told us that although they were told not to feed the baby, they knew she was hungry and fed her some bread and milk prior to bringing her to us. This mixture, fed to a pure carnivore, killed her within the hour.

We received a call from a lady in Santee reporting, in her words, "It looks like a vulture, except it's white and huge." It was walking around in her backyard. If for no other reason than to satisfy his curiosity, Chuck drove to Santee to see what manner of beast this was! As it turned out, it was a vulture, it was white, it was huge, and the woman wasn't crazy as we had originally thought. The bird was a Ruppell's Griffon, an African vulture, and had escaped from the San Diego Wild Animal Park several months prior. It was amazing that the bird survived and had traveled from Escondido to Santee, probably subsisting off road-killed animals. It wasn't amazing that the bird lived off road-kills, as that's what vultures do. The amazing part is that the bird made it the distance with partial amputations on both wings, a routine practice done at the Wild Animal Park to prevent such escapes. Park keepers retrieved him from us the next morning.

A man from Rancho Santa Fe called one morning to report a possum problem in his neighborhood. When asked what the problem was, he said that there was nothing wrong with the possums other than the fact that they were in his neighborhood, and he wanted them removed. I explained that we were a wildlife hospital, not a wildlife re-location service and that possums were everywhere in San Diego. As I attempted to explain the benefits of having possums in a given area, the man interrupted me by saying, "Lady, we are civilized people living in a civilized community, we don't want wildlife here." I hope he finds his dream neighborhood in another state!

Chuck had confronted and, with the use of a pole syringe, chemically immobilized an adult mountain lion who, although injured, was up and alert. While the lion was recovering at our center, the incident was receiving wide media coverage. Still feeling the effects of an adrenaline rush from such a dangerous confrontation, Chuck was approached by a local businesswoman who asked, "Is she friendly? Does she come up to you? Can you pet her?" Chuck's reply was neither politically correct nor printable.

— Cindy Traisi