Skunks can upset any homeowner when they decide to be live-in guests. They destroy and deface the yard with their digging habits and serve as reservoirs and carriers of many zoonotic diseases. Therefore, it is a normal instinct to want skunks out of your yard and immediate environment. Most people welcome the idea of wildlife removal and relocation by professionals and wildlife rehabilitators but are at a loss as to what the rehabilitators do with skunks.
Wildlife rehabilitators help in:
· Skunk removal from the environment
· Eliminating health risks that skunks may cause
· They provide community health and wildlife awareness. They teach the community proper ways to handle skunks and prevent skunk attacks.
Wildlife rehabilitators are professionals who study wild animals' behaviors, including skunks, their habits and habitats, and remove them from human society, relocating them to their natural habitats where they live without being threats to the human populace.
What Wildlife Rehabilitators Do
The job description of a wildlife rehabilitator is broad, and this job is necessary for any standard society. A wildlife rehabilitator performs the following duties:
· Skunk Removal: Wildlife such as skunks and other animals adapt quite easily to any environment and survive in any climate and weather condition. However, they do not cope as easily as household pets whose owners supply all they need. Skunks have to forage and cater for themselves in environments with hostile conditions. Therefore, there are rules guiding skunk killing and removal in a state to protect these wild animals. The wildlife rehabilitator is a professional that is aware of these laws and can work within them to remove skunks humanely. Wildlife rehabilitators have all the equipment and expertise they require and also have a wholesome knowledge of skunk habits. This aids them to remove skunks from yards, homes, and gardens successfully.
· Care of Orphaned, Sick, and Injured Animals: Sometimes, homeowners unintentionally separate pups from their mothers, or the mothers die. These pups become helpless and need the special care of wildlife rehabilitators to grow into adulthood. The rehabilitators care for the pups in wildlife rehabilitation centers and then introduce them to the wild when they are old enough to fend for themselves. Wildlife rehabilitators also nurse sick and injured skunks back to health; they carry out jobs like cleaning of the injury site, skunk bathing, feeding, transportation, and reintroduce them back to the wild when they are healthy.
· Research Work: Wildlife rehabilitators carry out research work to improve the living conditions of skunks and find better methods of skunk handling and welfare. They work with veterinary researchers to find cures to common skunk diseases and zoonotic diseases affecting animals and humans. Wildlife rehabilitators are also in charge of skunk vaccination and tracking. They use equipment and technology to track skunks, bring in sick or unhealthy skunks in the wild, and monitor population growth.
· Wildlife rehabilitators can easily discern behavioral changes in skunks; they have full gears and kits to tackle infestation problems. Wildlife rehabilitators are realistic and resourceful, and with their skills, they easily remove skunks from impossible spaces like decks and porches.
· Skunks play an important role in the food chain, and their extinction will cause a fatal lap. Therefore, wildlife rehabilitators help to protect the skunks and keep them safe. They also return them to their natural habitats, where they are free from humans and establish families. The rehabilitators learn more about skunks in their habitats and gain more insight into the lives and behaviors of skunks. This helps the rehabilitators to become more proficient skunk handlers.
Wildlife rehabilitators are important professionals who help keep skunks and other wildlife safe and away from the human population. You should contact these professionals to handle a sick or orphaned skunk that you find.
Go back to the Bensalem wildlife removal home page.