Urban wildlife
We are foster-parenting five roundtailed groundsquirrels right now. Despite hours spent over two days trying to find mom and/or burrow, we could find neither for these not-quite weaned pups.
Added bonus, while looking for burrows and mom today, we found a groundsnake. No picture, but a beautiful vibrant orange on top, green/yellow on sides and belly.
I'm not one for bringing wildlife into the home, but how could I give these little guys up to the elements/predators, especially after my daughter (who found the first one) had fallen in love with them?
I estimate them at about four weeks old - about a week short of weaning. I hope in a few weeks they'll be old enough to let go. However, they are quite tame (for now), so I think the schoolyard is definately NOT the place to release them! We can't find wildlife rehabilitators for groundsquirrels around here, so it's up to us.
Labels: cute, spermophilus tereticaudis
posted by Katherine Zander @ 9:49 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
They're adorable! But it's a good thing that knowledgeable you are in on the fostering process.
The only other animal I've taken from the wild was a whiptail lizard who was blinded by construction equipment. "Zoomer" only regained the use of one eye, so I kept her. She was a great pet - she loved to sit on top of my head, where it's nice and warm!
These guys are growing well, and are moving onto solid food. I'm really going to miss them when we let them go. We've failed miserably in avoiding human contact. This is for several reasons: 1)We have to handle them to feed them from a bottle 2) they seek us out and climb all over us, even if we move a fair distance away, when we let them out of the cage to play and 3) you tell me how I can get three girls aged 3, 5 and 8 to keep from oogling them all day!
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