The World is a Stage
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The majority of wildlife rehabilitators rescue, rehabilitate, raise and release orphaned wildlife from approximately April to September, so in the off season we meet once a month from October to March to try and teach ourselves more about work we do.
Wildlife rehabilitators volunteer under the Ministry of Natural Resources, but the MNR does not educate or even help us. They are, however, very good at giving us rules and enforcing them.
We try to have more knowledgeable people come in to share their information with us. It could be ways of capturing and transporting an injured hawk or doe. It could be how to give subcutaneous fluids, (under the skin) to a three-week-old very dehydrated skunk, or it could be how to handle the public who phone us at two in the morning and demand that we must come to pick up the baby raccoons they just orphaned when they hit the mother.
One group of wildlife that many others and I know little about are reptiles and amphibians. Of those, many of us know a bit about turtles and their environmental problems, or may have transported a turtle to Turtle Haven for Angie to rehab, but we know little about snakes or lizards. I know you are all thinking, ‘Why you would rehab a snake?’ Is your attitude, all good snakes are dead snakes?? Well, they and all the creepy crawlies everyone dislikes are also very necessary to our ecology and also deserve the right to live. Take away snakes, you are going to be over run by mice and rats and a give us a lot of other problems. Humans are called to be guardians of the earth and our group, Wildlife Guardians, takes that seriously.
So, to increase our education in this area we have invited Scales Nature Park from the Orillia area to speak to us, to teach us some basics about these species and learn how to transport and stabilize them until we can get them to the appropriate rehabbers. Scales, as the name implies, works with the animals and can teach us what we need to know. Fortunately for us they were able to get a grant to cover the expense of coming to Tillsonburg. Normal cost is well over $400, so we are thrilled because our group is informal and rehabbing is an expensive addiction.
Scales Nature Park, south of Orillia, focuses on the conservation or reptiles, amphibians, fish and the habitats that the animals require. Their park allows for exhibit and hands on education programing with live animals. They have nature trails and outdoor programs about ecology and conservation, etc. Owners Jeff Hathaway and Jenny Pearce are known from their previous company Sciencsational Sssnakes, so they know snakes!
Scales offers on-site and outreach programs including Reptiles at Risk, Turtle Troubles and Wetland Wildlife, and even custom programs, which of course is what they are going to do here.
I know this is a very busy time of year and although many of our rehabbers are coming, we want to pack the room to make Scales' trip worthwhile, so I would like to invite all naturalists, lovers of reptiles and amphibians to come on Nov. 20th from 1-4 p.m. to the program room at Annandale National Historic Site at 30 Tillson Ave.,Tillsonburg. Because of the grant we are not charging admission, however we will take a goodwill offering to pay for the room and give left overs a donation to Scales.
Joining Scales will be assorted live turtles, snakes and a skink! Cool! If you or someone you know might be interested, please note this program is not Scales’ general public seminar. It will be geared to rehabbers and perhaps more intense, with more detail which we need and may contain some 'gross' topics. I can assure you however it will be very interesting and you will learn a lot. I don’t know children, so cannot offer an appropriate age, but I would guess anyone younger than 'older teen' would find it too intense and over their heads, besides being restless for three hours.
If you know anyone who might be interested in these animals, our ecology, or rehabilitation of wildlife, please call immediately and let me know at 518-842-9416. We have limited space in the Museum’s program room and must keep track of the numbers coming.