Did you know that March 3 is World Wildlife Day?
With spring fast approaching, we will be seeing more of our resident animals in and around the community now. Ranchlands is incredibly lucky to have an amazing array of animals sharing our community, including bobcats, coyotes, skunks, porcupines, rabbits, and a vast array of birds, including a covey hungarian partridge.
It’s important to remember that these animals are a natural part of our local ecosystem and should be left alone. Putting out food is never recommended as you may end up feeding or attracting an animal besides the ones you intend and can habitualize these animals to expecting easy handouts. This can be unintentionally harmful to these animals in the long run as they will always choose the easy food and can end up going hungry if the food source stops, as well as causing them to become less leery of humans and potentially approaching people.
It’s particularly important to leave baby animals alone. Rabbits will leave young bunnies alone for long periods of time so a young rabbit who is alone is not necessarily abandoned. Should you find a wild animal injured or in distress, please contact the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society at 403-214-1312 for advice or information from a trained professional. Approaching an animal on your own could end up with you being injured by a scared animal or potentially cause more harm to the animal if it panics and tries to escape.
While predatory animals such as bobcats and coyotes might seem frightening, they are an important part of the ecosystem and help to keep the population of rabbits, squirrels, and other small animals from exceeding what their food source can adequately support. It’s incredibly important to ensure you aren’t leaving things like dog food outside where coyotes can access it, as well as making sure you pick up dog waste to prevent it from spreading diseases.
With animals such as skunks and porcupines, it’s important to know they are not aggressive but will react if provoked. Dogs unfortunately end up on the receiving end of this due to their curiosity, so ensure you keep them away from wild animals. Should your dog end up being injured by porcupine quills, do not pull them out yourself as they are brittle and the tips can break off and stay embedded in the skin, leading to infection. Take them to a veterinarian so they can be properly removed.
Ranchlands is very lucky to have such amazing green spaces in our neighborhood, but that does mean we have to share the space with all its residents, including the wild ones.
Anita Raffaele
President
