While every day at WRC is rewarding and filled with moments of deep satisfaction, yesterday was a very special day.

Two juvenile river otters, which we’ve raised for the past eight weeks, were released at the Rapids Lake area of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refugee near Carver.  Releases are usually intriguing, often unpredictable and sometimes exciting; yesterday’s release was that and more.  The otters were certainly ready to be free.  They were snarly and aggressive when we captured them for the trip to freedom.

In addition to US Fish and Wildlife officials, our staff and some of our summer interns, KARE11 joined us to film the release and aired it on last night’s news.  Here’s a full-page display of the news video.

River Otters are a difficult species to raise.  They get very stressed during handling, their diet is challenging and requires introducing a variety of foods, including live prey (such as the crayfish you’ve seen in an earlier post).  As they grow older they require significant space and high water quality.  Their aggressive nature makes it difficult to monitor their progress. They are also social and seldom do well alone.

We (and the otters) were fortunate in this case.  We rarely see otters, yet these two came to us just five days apart – on June 10 and June 15.  And the later arrival came from Belle Plain, near the release site.

We’re very grateful to the US Fish and Wildlife staff for finding an appropriate site at the National Wildlife Refugee and for giving us permission to do the release.  USFW staff have seen otters all along the Minnesota River Valley.  This release is a celebration of our success in raising these otters and is also symbolically important since the presence of otters is an indicator of improving river habitat on the Minnesota River.

Here’s more information on River Otters.

If cuteness factor went to 11, our young River Otters would easily achieve that rating.  Today, Nurseries Director Lynnette Scott, invited me to film the otters’ first experience with live crayfish.  It didn’t take them long to figure out these were tasty little morsels (even though one otter carried around a tenacious crayfish that latched onto its belly before the other otter discovered and promptly devoured it).

The wooden platform that you see in the photo and video is actually the otters’ favorite place to hang out.  They also have plenty of tree limbs and branches and a large pool in their room.  We’re planning on moving them to outdoor caging in the next couple days, then releasing them in approximately 2 weeks.

You’ll have to check out the video of them playing with, and finally eating, the crayfish.

What a perfect day for a duck release.  Today several volunteers and staff rounded up more than 40 ducks from our outdoor caging at Carpenter Nature Center for release.

Before transporting the ducks to their new home they were each checked for body and feather condition and fitted with federal ID bands.  Thanks to Jim Fitzpatrick, licensed bird bander, and his banding crew, all the mallards released today were banded.

Having birds banded before release is important because band reports provide vital information about wild populations.  We once had a band report on a Canada Goose that was raised in our nursery seven years after its release.

The mallards were released in Cottage Grove Ravine Regional Park.  It was apparent by the flapping, diving, and preening that these ducks approved of their new home.

Yesterday one of the hummingbirds ventured out of the nest! The other will soon follow.  Hummingbirds only lay two eggs and begin incubating right away, so one chick hatches first and is always a day ahead of the other. Today we will introduce miniature hummingbird feeders to the pair, however we will still hand feed them for a while as they get used to the idea of eating on their own. It is hard to believe that these little birds will make the long journey to Central America, non-stop over the Gulf of Mexico, when summer comes to a close!

The lump you can see on the neck in the top picture is the bird’s “crop” (a place in their esophagus where they store their food after they eat it and before they digest it.)

The hummingbirds at 16 days old…starting to get feathers!  Watch them feeding on our YouTube Channel.

Unfortunately, not all animals make it despite our best treatments.

The baby Blue Heron from an earlier post sadly had to be humanely euthanized as it developed several more fractures in the wing we had splinted.  We don’t know if it had an underlying disease (ie. metabolic bone disease) or if it injured itself in its enclosure, but the fractures would not have healed well enough for it to fly.

The American Toad that had an obstruction in its stomach recovered well from that surgery (the stomach healed very nicely and she felt well enough to eat a grub on her own!) but  she remained lethargic and didn’t pass any stool.

To determine why she wasn’t fully recovered yet, we performed a barium study.  A barium study is where you feed an animal a liquid that shows up bright white on x-rays.  Serial x-rays are taken and you can see the barium as it passes through various parts of the gastrointestinal tract.

Here is one taken 1 hour after we fed her the barium.  The blob on the right is barium in her stomach and you can see it snaking through the intestines to the left.

we continued to take x-rays but after 24 hours the barium became stuck at the junction of the small intestine and colon.

She needed surgery again or she would die.  So we went to surgery but unfortunately, the part of the intestine that had all the barium in it was extremely fragile and burst.  She would have needed the fragile part of her intestine cut out and the two ends sewn together (called an anastomosis and resection), but we couldn’t find why she became obstructed in the first place.

It was decided to humanely euthanize her as the anastomosis and resection surgery she needed was very risky (high rate of failure) and we couldn’t guarantee she wouldn’t become obstructed again.  It seemed unfair to put her through more pain when we couldn’t give her a good prognosis.

However, the Green Herons are doing well and eating on their own, the cygnets have been fostered out to a swan pair, and the hummingbirds are still thriving!  Amidst the disappointing outcomes are several more healthy and happy ones!

I learned yesterday that we’ve admitted nearly 2,000 animals in June alone!!! That’s our busiest June in history, and our 2nd busiest month in history!! We’ve already surpassed 5,000 animals so far for the year! I wonder if this will be our record-breaking year for admits!?

Two days ago, just before we closed for the night, the WRC received two of our smallest admits of the year – infant Ruby-throated Hummingbirds! They had fallen from their nest and amazingly, someone spotted them on the ground. It is always best to replace baby birds into their nest, but the rescuer was unable to locate the nest so did the next best thing and brought the birds to us.

Baby hummingbirds need to be fed every 15 minutes for 14 hours a day. These two are about 10 days old, and have only just recently opened their eyes. We are currently feeding them a juvenile hummingbird formula with some insects added for extra protein, which is important for feather development in infants. We’ve also ordered some special hand-feeding formula to be shipped overnight from a rehabilitator in California who specializes in hummingbirds. It is the same food that the San Diego zoo uses for all their exotic hummingbirds and is due to arrive sometime today. (What a kind donation!) I’m happy to report that these little babies are doing very well.

We released two Common Loons this week.  Both were found grounded on roads.  One had a few abrasions on a foot and the other was slightly weak in one leg–otherwise physical examinations were completely normal.  X-rays were normal and there was no lead detected in their blood.   It’s likely these 2 had ‘crash-landed’.  (they can mistake wet pavement as a body of water)

Loons’ legs are positioned far back on their body to make swimming more efficient.  This positioning makes walking on land essentially impossible, so if they accidentally land on ground (instead of water) they are stranded.

One of the loons was released in cooperation with Larry Backlund.  You may know him as “the Loon Guy”:  every year he shares live video feed of a loon nest.  He has wonderful photos of the release on his site.

A reminder to be careful of loons on our lakes this weekend.  With all the focus on loons due to the oil spill, we shouldn’t forget that their protection begins here in their home territory.  Visit the MNDNR site for a brief news release on boating guidelines around loons.  Keep your eyes open: you should see babies with parents!