RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Workers at the Richmond Wildlife Center in Virginia are doing their best to act like mother foxes as they feed and care for orphaned kittens in their care.
A video posted Tuesday on the center's Facebook page shows executive director Melissa Stanley, wearing a red fox mask and rubber gloves, feeding a small kit from a syringe. Stanley said the kit rests on top of a large stuffed fox that she believes resembles her mother.
The same Facebook post explained why staff members were wearing masks, minimizing human noise, creating visual barriers and taking other precautions to feed her. “It is important that orphans raised in confinement do not have human imprinting or habituation,” she said in her post.
A fluffy gray penguin chick joins the Humboldt colony at the Oregon Zoo Penguinarium.
All these measures increase the likelihood that this kit will one day be reintroduced into the wild.
Stanley said in an interview Tuesday that the kit was discovered by a man walking his dog in a Richmond alley and was admitted to the center on Feb. 29. Thinking she was his kitten, he handed her over to the Richmond Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She was less than 24 hours old and her umbilical stump was still attached.
Wildlife center staff initially attempted to locate the kits' mother and den and reunite them. They found the location of the den, but were told by the groundskeeper that the fox had been trapped and removed. Stanley said she suspects the fox kit either fell out of a trap or from the back of a trapper's truck.
Staff at the wildlife center wear fox masks and take turns feeding the kits every two to four hours. In addition to a large stuffed animal meant to imitate Kit's mother, staff also placed a small stuffed red fox in her enclosure. She cuddles up to a small stuffed animal at the end of the video.
“The goal is to reintroduce animals back into the wild, not only to increase their chances of survival, but also to recognize their species and breed to maintain wild animal populations,” Stanley said. Ta.
To accomplish this goal, the center immediately began searching for other red fox kits of similar age and weight within the rehabilitation community. Staff found three of his other kits at a rehabilitation facility in northern Virginia. The fox kits will be transferred to the Animal Education and Rescue Organization, with plans to eventually pack up the kits and release them back into the wild.
Skene contributed to this report from Baltimore.
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