Check Out Some Hope for Wildlife Videos!We put together a short video documenting some of our orphaned red foxes growing up with us. It's always over before you know it. While it's our job to help these little ones grow up healthy, strong, and ready for a life in their natural habitat, the goodbyes are often as bittersweet as they are rewarding. Take care, foxes! Click HERE to see hellos and goodbyes..the journey of our foxes! If foxes are your thing, you can help us help foxes by sponsoring fox care! We have sponsorships for a bunch of species, and foxes are one of them. The sponsorship goes to all the medical care, food, enrichment, and other supplies that help us protect our wildlife. https://www.hopeforwildlife.net/gift-shop/p/animal-sponsorships
____________________________________________________________________ Releases are the most satisfying part of what we do, and it looks like this snapping turtle agrees with us. We recently sent this fellow home after a stay with us recovering from injuries sustained from being hit by a car. Even some of his scutes are missing, the shell is sturdy and we expect he'll continue to live a long life. And that's important because all of our turtle species are at risk, largely due to habitat loss and fragmentation. Female turtles can walk kilometres in search of a suitable nesting site for their young, crossing many roads on their journey to find that perfect spot. Somewhere around 1% of turtle species make it to maturity at around 18 years of age, so every turtle that goes back to the wild is a huge help to them! ____________________________________________________________________ This little orphaned porcupine really loves clover. Porcupine will eat the leaves of herbs and shrubs, as well as greens like dandelion, clover, and various grasses. They also really like leaves of water lily, and will swim out to get them. That's right, porcupines are great swimmers! Their quills are largely hollow, which helps them float along, kind of like wearing a giant pokey life preserver. ____________________________________________________________________ Our deer releases are always a special event for the volunteers and staff at Hope for Wildlife. Orphaned fawns are hard work to raise. They are such a delicate species, so caring for them requires as much hands-off care as we can balance so they grow up with all their natural wild behaviours. They are also sequestered in their own giant unit, so even catching a fleeting glimpse of them in the tall grass can be a rare occurrence for most of us. So, when it's time for them to be released to their new home, there's always a bit of a celebratory feeling. Every year we work with the Department of Natural Resources and Renewables to release them, finding them undisclosed, protected wilderness areas. We give them plenty of time to prepare as a herd for their first winter, while food is still abundant and the weather is still pleasant. Before we know it, it will be springtime again and a whole new herd of orphaned fawns will start arriving. We'll be ready! ____________________________________________________________________ This fledgling cedar waxwing is helping out some neighbouring nestlings by feeding them. Cedar waxwings actually do this quite a bit, and it's known as allofeeding. That's when feeding care is directed toward non-offspring and non-siblings. It's actually very sweet and we'll take all the help we can get! Waxwings are strongly flock-oriented, so it's very possible that their tight-knit social structure encourages food-sharing beyond the immediate family to provide a benefit to the overall group. ____________________________________________________________________ This porcupine patent was admitted with crossbow bolt in his rump. He's is finally starting to recover, two weeks later, and he's getting some exercise while his room is cleaned. We were worried for a while that it had nicked his spine, as he wasn't really able to move his tail much. This would be a serious problem since their tail is one of their main tools. Not only do they use it for defence (they will slap you with it faster than you might think), but it's actually quite strong, and they use it to support themselves as the climb up and down trees. Fortunately, he's starting to recover - not only is he feeling like himself again, but he's started using his tail. ____________________________________________________________________
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