Care for AWARE's Ambassador Animals

A barred owl is brought to AWARE in a box--the victim of a collision with a motor vehicle. It has a broken wing. An orphaned baby bobcat is found and raised as a pet. It comes to AWARE wrapped in a blanket and the "rescuers" hug it before handing it over to a volunteer. A box turtle is dropped off at AWARE. It has swollen eyes and is so sick that it lacks the energy pull into its shell when being handled.

All of these stories are familiar ones to us at AWARE. We hope to be able to heal each injury and release every animal back to the wild but the odds are not in the animal's favor. The reality is that many animals will not make it back to their forests, woodlands, urban or suburban landscapes where they would interact daily with other animals--prey or predator--and be driven to find nutritional sustenance for themselves or their young. With that in mind, AWARE's volunteers and staff take their job of providing enrichment to our non-releasable Ambassador animals very seriously. The goal in part is to stimulate physical activity in animals whose range of travel has been dramatically reduced. The other equally important goal is mental stimulation of animals who were used to making their own decisions about their livelihood.

Recently, for example, one of our volunteer handlers tried a delictable dish of a different sort--in this case crayfish--with Lady Owlbert Einstein, whose standard diet typically involves small rodents. According to Volunteer Melanie, Owlbert "went for the big one as soon as my back was turned." Sometimes the food is hidden in a puzzle and the Ambassador animal has to figure out where it is. Some of the enrichment items that we provide are not necessarily edible but involve exposing the Ambassador animals to different scents. In this video of Cat Ballou the bobcat, a stuffed animal has been rubbed with several scents, including a little bit of catnip: Ballou and the Green Elephant. Volunteers have also found a way to get Savannah bobcat's attention by blowing a few bubbles her way; she quickly shows that they are no match for her: Savannah and the bubbles.

Have you ever seen a bobcat playing with bubbles or a stuffed animal in the wild? Maybe not but AWARE's volunteers show time after time how much the animals appreciate the stimulation that the enrichment of their diet and habitat brings. AWARE's volunteer Ambassador handlers provide these opportunities on a daily basis to each and every animal. The cool part is that the interactions that occur during enrichment time keep the overall experience just as challenging and stimulating for the volunteers as it does for the wildlife. What new enrichment activities will they discover next month?

Special Note: As with all of AWARE's enrichment videos and photos, the volunteers and staff are experienced and trained wildlife handlers. None of the activities portrayed here should ever be attempted with wildlife unless you are properly permitted and licensed by your area's governing authority and trained. Thank you for respecting the Earth's wild animals!--Dr. Tarah

Links:

• http://www.awarewildlife.org