Many mouths fed, many critters returned to wild at Second Nature
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[In the wintertime the priorities of wildlife are meeting the most basic needs: Food, water and shelter from the elements.
It is the search for these that drives animals to close encounters with humans. Squirrels, raccoons, possums and flying squirrels will search out holes in eaves to reach attics, will tear into trash to find food, will climb onto porches to reach dog dishes and may even reach bird feeders looking for something to eat. Skunks are notorious for wintering in crawl spaces.
Come spring, animals holed up in hidden spots in human houses may give birth to young before the humans have the parents trapped. People may repair the holes and then realize they are stuck with baby critters. That's where Pam Sundeen, director of Second Nature Wildlife Rehabilitation comes in. Sundeen has raised many raccoons orphaned this way. She currently has four raccoons she is raising until spring when she will release them when food is more plentiful.
It has been a busy year for Second Nature and Sundeen has a new education animal. Hope the possum was struck on the road with two babies in her pouch. Hope sustained a skull fracture, brain damage and has very little vision.
"But she not only survived, she raised her two babies," Sundeen said.
When the center acquired three more orphaned baby possums, Hope nursed them and this year all five young were released back into the wild.
At about two years old, Hope has another two to three years to live out her natural life.
Sundeen has four raccoons she is caring for. Three are litter mates who were orphaned when their parent was trapped. Another was found on the road beside its dead mother.
The center kept a young bobcat for a week a couple weeks ago. A woman said the cat had struck her car near Galatia and knocked itself into a daze. A Saline County Sheriff's Deputy called Sundeen and said the woman was holding the dazed bobcat in a blanket where the collision happened. Sundeen does not recommend ever holding a bobcat, no matter how docile it appears. After a night at the kennel the bobcat was back to its normal disposition -- snarling and hissing when anyone approached. The volunteers fed it meat and released it in about the area where it was injured, hoping it would find its mother in the family's den.
The center raised three coyote pups, one of which had been kept as a pet with removed canine teeth. Sundeen says in raising coyotes the most important rehabilitation technique is to force them to remain wild. She instructed her interns to never speak to the coyotes or play with them, no matter how cute they may be. The volunteers were to only provide food, water and new toys and not even make eye contact.
The idea was for the three unrelated coyotes to depend on each other and form their own pack. They would be released once Sundeen confirmed they were able to catch and eat live mice. They did and were released together.
This year donors helped Sundeen build an enclosure for fawns and she is raising four. One, Buck, has nibs of antlers poking from his head.
"He was raised in a house by a lady in Benton. He had been sleeping with her and would run to the door when anyone came," Sundeen said.
Raising a deer without a permit is unlawful and Illinois Department of Conservation officers received word of her deer. They took the deer and Sundeen and her volunteers are trying to raise it by making it more wild.
"We're doing a lot to get him wilded up," Sundeen said.
While Buck is small and charming, in a few years remaining tame he will have antlers and will still want to run to people for attention. In time, the deer will no longer be dependent on humans and will return to the wild.
The Second Nature fawns are making do with a tarped kennel within their enclosure for shelter from rain, but Sundeen is hoping donors can help fund or build a more permanent lean-to structure.
For next year Second Nature also needs more squirrel and possum cages.
"Our two biggest struggles are financial and manpower," Sundeen said.
Feeding and cleaning monopolizes life at the center. In the spring when baby animals come they must be fed every three hours.
Information on donating is at the Web site http://www.secondnaturewildlife.org.
There is a wish list of items on the Web site.
Those wishing to make a donation may send a check to Second Nature Wildlife, P.O. Box 112, Thompsonville, Ill. 62890 or for information call (618) 627-2000.
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DeNeal receives e-mail at mailto:bdeneal@yourclearwave.com.</li>
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