Recently a newly hatched American Woodcock (or ‘Timberdoodle’) was admitted into our Avian Nursery. He won the hearts of everyone and even though he had just hatched, he was incredibly curious; running around exploring every corner of his enclosure.

Did you know that woodcock eggs split lengthwise during hatching? (Most eggs split width-wise!)

Even though woodcocks are technically a type of sandpiper, they live in young forests rather than near shorelines and live on worms and invertebrates that they find by probing their long beaks into the soil. Woodcocks are considered precocial since they are covered in downy feathers and have their eyes open when they hatch. Unlike most precocial birds though, they cannot feed themselves until about a week after hatching. For the first week of life they depend on their mother for this. Watch our little woodcock being fed here.

Our American Woodcock (left) sitting with a Killdeer chick.

So the Mammal Nursery may be overrun with squirrels and bunnies, and raccoons are arriving daily, but what about those other mammals, which may not be as common, but still need just as much care and attention? In fact, some of it very precise care due to their unique needs.

Already this year we’ve cared for numerous Red Fox kits, half a dozen baby opossums (or ‘joeys’), woodchuck cubs, a couple baby mink, a young beaver kit, a handful of baby mice, a coyote pup, as well as several flying squirrels and chipmunks!

Here’s one of the very tiny mink on day of admission. Animals this small go home with volunteers who have special permits from the MN DNR.

The opossums may be the most interesting to me, simply because, unlike all other ‘placental’ mammals in North America, they are the only marsupial. The babies are born at a very early stage in their development, and then make their way to the mother’s pouch to continue growing. Once within the confines of the pouch (or ‘marsupium’), they latch onto one of the mother’s nipples, and do not let go until they are ready to leave. Juvenile opossums may ride on the back of their mother until they are old enough to leave her altogether.

Because infant opossums are attached to the mother’s nipple at all times, they will not learn, like placental mammals, how to ‘suckle’ from a syringe or bottle. This means that when caring for them at the WRC, we have to feed them their formula using a gavage tube which is carefully inserted through their esophagus into their stomach.

Woodchuck parents usually give birth to a litter of five young, which wean relatively quickly at around five weeks old. Woodchucks are known at the WRC for being bundles of ‘pure muscle,” and, as adults, exceptionally aggressive. The young start to exhibit the same characteristics at weaning age, and generally tend to be hostile toward humans. Although this may seem like a negative trait, we, as wildlife rehabbers, seek this type of behaviour! It is a good sign that when released they will not walk up to the next human they encounter, wanting food, and instead will behave like any other wild woodchuck. The cub we have at current is so young it cannot yet see; most likely only a couple of weeks old (they open their eyes during their third week).

At birth, mice ‘pups’ are hairless, blind and have closed (flattened) ears. They can weigh as little as 0.5g (0.02 oz)! They mature relatively quickly, and at about 3 weeks old (10 g or 0.35 oz) will stop nursing. At one month old they will leave the mother, and at 3 to 4 months old will be ready to mate! This may seem very fast, but things have to happen quickly when your life expectancy is, on average, only two years. We feed the mice pups at WRC with special ‘mice feeding tips’ and give them less than 0.5 ml of formula at each feeding. As soon as their eyes open we offer them sunflower seeds, small pieces of fruit and bird seed, and a soaked ‘rodent chow’ with formula. From there they quickly learn to forage on their own.

The flying squirrels we admitted were very young and orphaned when a dead tree was cut down. We’ll be able to determine whether they’re Southern Flying Squirrels or Northern Flying Squirrels when they’re a bit older. Here’s how tiny they were at the time of admission:

Every time I see the picture in the lobby of the three baby beavers from a few years ago drinking from their bottles, I wish we’d get a truly orphaned beaver in again (as opposed to one mistakenly taken from its family).

This morning my wish came true!  A beaver kit was found on path, weak and crawling around.  The finders put him under a bush so the family could come find it.  After 6 hours, the kit was still there so it was brought to WRC.  The kit is weak, dehydrated and has a mild upper respiratory infection.  It is on treatment and hopefully will do well.

Beavers form very tight family units and the young kits spend two years with their parents learning how to survive, build dams, etc. In rehabilitation, it takes a very long time (2 years!) and is a complicated rehabilitation process to prepare kits for release. A single kit must be released with another orphan of the same age into an area that is perfect beaver habitat but is unoccupied by beavers. Sadly, even then, many of these beavers that are released don’t make it.  Most likely he (like the three from a few years ago) will will be placed with an education facility or zoo to be an ambassador for wildlife.

Every now and then an animal that does not quite fully recuperate makes a good candidate to be placed with an organization that has educational permits.

On Wednesday a female Pine Grosbeak that spent the winter recovering at WRC was transferred to the Columbus (Ohio) Zoo and a male Pileated Woodpecker that was raised in our 2011 Avian Nursery made his debut at the Minnesota Zoo.

The Pileated Woodpecker is from Hamel, Minn., and was literally on death’s door when it arrived at WRC last June. The fact that it survived, is a tribute to the person who found it in the nick of time and the efforts of our medical and Avian Nursery staff. When it first arrived at WRC it was suffering from a trauma and could only lay on its back, all muscles completely tensed. By early September it had recuperated to the point that it could perch and fly very short distances. You can read more about his amazing story in the Minnesota Zoo’s news release.

The Pine Grosbeak has made a long journey. On February 9, she crashed into a window in Grand Marais, in far Northeastern Minnesota. She was then brought to Wildwoods Rehabilitation Center in Duluth who then transferred the bird to us due to its medical needs.

Her case is an excellent example of permanent injuries occurring without a clear diagnosis. She had no fractures, probably incurred head trauma, but never fully regained the ability to fly and continually dropped a wing. The Columbus (Ohio) Zoo was hoping to obtain one of these far northern birds and this was the perfect opportunity for an otherwise healthy bird to live out the rest of its life in a safe setting.

We’re so happy both of these beautiful birds have found new homes.

Canada Geese goslings are often orphaned when they fall behind or something startles the parent geese and they take off.

The parent geese are good parents, but they can’t count so if they get to wherever they are going and are missing a gosling or two, they usually don’t notice. Luckily, geese families are very indiscriminate and will raise orphans. They have such a strong parenting instinct that when they hear a gosling cry, their instinct is to protect that gosling – whether or not it’s theirs.

Here at WRC we take advantage of the fact that geese can’t count. When a healthy Canada Goose gosling comes in, we find a goose family with goslings of the same size and introduce the orphan to them. Sometimes it can be difficult since the parents are trying to protect the goslings, but if we’re patient and give the parents time, they’ll adopt the orphan. Here’s a video showing the process.

Note that this does not work with mallards. They will actually attack ducklings trying to join their family that are not theirs.