Thursday, March 15, 2007
It’s raccoon season. We’re inundated with them. Spring has sprung and the sap is running … literally and figuratively. What I’m trying to say is, it’s mating time.
As male raccoons compete for territory and mates, the strong, healthy juveniles take on the elderly and the sick in vicious battles that can end in severe injury and even death. Of those that survive long enough to be found and brought into the wildlife centre, very few can be rehabilitated and released back into the wild.
Sometimes, their injuries are simply too severe. They arrive with torn limbs, missing teeth, or even having lost an eye. Sometimes they’re starving from having been exiled from food-rich territory for so long.
Nature can be cruel, for sure. But in this case, she’s not entirely to blame. Territories just aren’t large enough any more to support the same populations of raccoons. Why? Because of human encroachment on their habitats. Golf courses, condo developments, roadways. We’re turning what’s left of their territories into pressure cookers, and it’s the wildlife hospitals that are seeing the results.
Gosh … I do hope I have a happier story for next week’s Thursday morning shift. Your happy raccoon rescue stories welcome in response!