Wolf Pups!

These pups were brought to Wildlife Images by a woman who rescued them from an unsafe environment somewhere in Nevada City, CA. Since wolf-hybrids do not make good pets, the “rescuer” contacted us knowing that we would be able to properly care and provide for them.

Little is really known about their history. We do know that they are 7 weeks old, 1 male and 1 female. Even though wolves and domestic dogs are closely related, the behaviors can be very different than your standard domestic dog begging for table scraps and sitting on your lap for hours on end.

Domestic dogs have had thousands of years to become integrated with people, developing traits that are much milder than their wild counterparts. Wolves and wolf-hybrids have not had this luxury, and tend to demonstrate much more natural instincts. This can result in an animal that lives in a home with humans, but can’t help when natural behaviors take over. Being more high strung, more timid, and more easily startled than domestic dogs, this can end up in injury to themselves, other animals, or even the people they live with. With this in mind, wolf hybrids are discouraged as personal pets.

Wolf-hybrid individuals present a unique situation in terms of behavior and personality. They posses both the enduring puppy qualities characteristic of domestic dogs, along with the natural instincts inherent in wild wolves. The hybrid pups that have come to Wildlife Images as educational ambassadors will be raised with all of this in mind. They will be cared for like our other resident wolves, Lakota and Tundra. But, we will continue to socialize them so they can become confident and effective Educational Ambassadors.

Wildlife Images is howling with excitement over the launch of a wolf pup naming auction which allows YOU to pounce at the chance to name our adorable hybrid wolf pups!

Wildlife Images’ staff members have put together a list of names honoring the amazing place in which we live. For a small donation of $1.00 per vote, you get to choose the one you like best. Click HERE to make your donation and selection.

Boy

Argo – A rapid on the Rogue River

Rogue – In honor of the Rogue River
Rocky – A rapid on the Rogue River
Canyon – Oak tree

Girl
Kelsey – A rapid on the Rogue River
Siskiyou – A region of Southern Oregon
Cascadia – A mountain range
Madrone – Type of native tree

You can catch their first t.v. appearance this Monday, 2/28 at 6:20am on Channel 10 News KTVL Medford, “Walk on the Wildlside” and on their first radio show with Don and Niki at Kool 103.5 Medford at 7:00am.

Meet Mr. Skunk

We received a juvenile striped skunk in September of this year.  The people that brought him to us had found him as a baby in July and had kept him and raised him since then, intending to make him a pet.  When they took him to their vet to be de-scented, however, they were told that it’s illegal to have wildlife as pets and did the right thing by bringing him to us.

Since September we have fed him nothing but natural foods – mice, eggs, nuts, mushrooms, berries, etc. – and have kept human contact to an absolute minimum in an attempt to ‘wild him up’ and get him to the point where he could be returned to the wild. However, after all these weeks, he still turns his nose up at mice and rarely eats anything but eggs and berries.

Clearly he is not capable of surviving in the wild if he doesn’t recognize natural foods, so we asked the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to allow us to keep him as an educational ambassador based on the fact that he is non-releasable.  They gave us the permit and we now have a skunk as a member of our educational team! Click Here For Video

The Animal Care and Education staff are beginning to work with him now that he will be a permanent resident.  During his time as a ‘patient’ we took a very hands-off approach, as we do for all the wild patients.  But, now that we have the proper permit, we can start working with him and introducing all the staff and volunteers that will be caring for him.  We have just begun a naming contest amongst staff and volunteers, so he doesn’t even have a name yet, but will soon (in fact, we’re not 100% sure that he is a he – we make it a habit to not get too personal with skunks that can still spray – but will find out soon and name ‘him’ appropriately ).  We’ll be sure to post something when it’s official.

He will not be going out to schools and other facilities for programs, but he will permanently live at Wildlife Images.  We will have to do a special fundraiser to accumulate funds to build him an enclosure before he will be out on the tour path, ready to meet and teach visitors.  If you’d like to contribute to his new enclosure, please CLICK HERE.

Meet Little Bobbie

This little bobcat came to us this summer as an orphan.  The folks that brought her in told us that the mother had been hit by a car.  Surprisingly this little youngster wasn’t in too bad of shape – she was thin and dehydrated, but other than that she didn’t have any major injuries of her own.

We bottle fed her initially since she was so young.  Bottle feeding a large clawed bobcat – even a young one – is a challenge indeed!  But, she and the staff made it through just fine.  We eventually started introducing small bits of meat and as of today she is eating nothing but whole prey.  Her favorite is quail, but she also loves venison.

She is going to be with us through the winter – so be sure to check back for updates.  Bobcats are high-level predators that would normally be with mom for up to the first six months of life.  Since she will be six months old in the middle of winter we plan on releasing her in early spring when there’s plenty of prey available for her and other predators.

In the meantime she is in a large outdoor, secluded enclosure.  It is of the utmost importance that we do not allow her to become comfortable around people so we have taken special measures to ensure that this does not happen.  We provide her with whole prey and will eventually introduce live prey to her so we can make certain she is capable of surviving on her own in the wild.  We also provide her with hiding places, scratching logs and plenty of dens to choose from.  Wildlife rehabilitators must provide for all aspects of an animal’s life, not just their medical needs.  With young high-level predators such as bobcats it is even more important to do this and to avoid taming or imprinting since they could pose such a threat to human welfare.

We rarely receive orphaned or injured bobcats for rehabilitation, so when we do it is special.  Although none of us spend extra time with her we all feel very fortunate to be a part of her life and to be helping her make a healthy return to the wild!

Meet our Rattlesnakes

A brave gentleman found this Western rattlesnake tangled up in some netting on his property.  We all know rattlesnakes are very dangerous so we took a lot of extra precautions in dealing with this particular patient.  After removing the snake from the bucket the gentleman had brought it in, we placed the snake, still tangled in netting, in our anesthesia chamber.  The chamber allows us to anesthetize an animal without restraining or holding it.  Once the snake was asleep we carefully cut away all the netting.  Fortunately the snake had suffered very little damage from the netting – just some minor trauma to the scales and skin, nothing that rendered it incapable of surviving on its own in the wild.  It was released shortly thereafter.  Although rattlesnakes are dangerous, they are native to our area and we treat all native, non-prohibited species.  Snakes play a very important role in the natural world and deserve to be out there in the wild.

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