We've had a woodchuck issue under the barn for several years. Every year I shoot and/or trap the majority of them, and every spring we start over. This spring my wood chuck problem was solved when a pair of foxes denned in the old woodchuck burrow.
But Monday night one of the adults was hit by a car, and by Tuesday morning all three kits were outside the entrances looking forlorn. Absolutely no fear of people--they even stuck around while I mowed the lawn within 15 feet of the den entrances.
After calls to my local wildlife biologist and the wildlife rehabilitator he sent me too, the best course of action seemed to be to live trap one of the kits. They both said that if one of the parents were still caring for them, they'd move to another den site as soon as one was trapped. But if the other kits stuck around, the parents were gone and we should trap them all and bring to the rehab center to be raised.
We had the first kit trapped within about 45 minutes of setting the trap. Dee Dee was ready to adopt the little fellow, and he was awfully cute. We took him over the wildlife rehab center--and allow me to make a blatant plug for Don Cote and the other fine folks who rescue wildlife as volunteers--and dropped him off. Reports are that he passed quarantine and has been accepted into a captive litter Don had from a previous call.
One of the parents must have still been around, because we haven't seen hide nor hair of the other two kits since that night. Dee Dee and I are thinking we should have just left them alone, but we took the best advice we could find, and based on their behavior everyone thought they were probably abandoned. We still feel guilty, though.
The captured kit will be ready for release next spring, and they like to put them back where they came from. I'm hoping he--and maybe the rest of family--will stick around and keep my woodchucks at bay next year.
View attachment foxie2.jpg
View attachment foxie.jpg
But Monday night one of the adults was hit by a car, and by Tuesday morning all three kits were outside the entrances looking forlorn. Absolutely no fear of people--they even stuck around while I mowed the lawn within 15 feet of the den entrances.
After calls to my local wildlife biologist and the wildlife rehabilitator he sent me too, the best course of action seemed to be to live trap one of the kits. They both said that if one of the parents were still caring for them, they'd move to another den site as soon as one was trapped. But if the other kits stuck around, the parents were gone and we should trap them all and bring to the rehab center to be raised.
We had the first kit trapped within about 45 minutes of setting the trap. Dee Dee was ready to adopt the little fellow, and he was awfully cute. We took him over the wildlife rehab center--and allow me to make a blatant plug for Don Cote and the other fine folks who rescue wildlife as volunteers--and dropped him off. Reports are that he passed quarantine and has been accepted into a captive litter Don had from a previous call.
One of the parents must have still been around, because we haven't seen hide nor hair of the other two kits since that night. Dee Dee and I are thinking we should have just left them alone, but we took the best advice we could find, and based on their behavior everyone thought they were probably abandoned. We still feel guilty, though.
The captured kit will be ready for release next spring, and they like to put them back where they came from. I'm hoping he--and maybe the rest of family--will stick around and keep my woodchucks at bay next year.
View attachment foxie2.jpg
View attachment foxie.jpg
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