You are the ambassador

Why this matters

In many cases you are the first contact the public has with the professional wildlife community. What you say on the phone may be crucial to that person's health and safety, and to the animal's future.

By the end of this lesson you will be able to

Describe the rehabilitator's role as a public educator

Handle a caller's concern without trivializing it

Recognize the boundary between rehabilitation and nuisance wildlife control

As a licensed rehabilitator you serve as an Ambassador for Wildlife. The public is often very caring but relatively unfamiliar with the realities of wildlife biology. Your job is to be a source of correct biological and legal information while staying sensitive to the person asking.

Rules for the call

Never trivialize the caller's concern or make them feel their call is unimportant.
If you do not know the answer, say "I don't know", then use your resources to find and give the correct answer.
Do not belittle people. Often this is their first encounter with wildlife and their intentions are good.
Present accurate information. If you present inaccurate information, the public will not take you seriously as a wildlife professional.

What you are not

Rehabilitators are not nuisance control personnel. That activity has its own permits. You are not licensed to remove raccoons denning in chimneys or to live-trap nuisance skunks or woodchucks. What you can do is provide biologically sound information that prevents animals from being injured or orphaned in the first place, and refer callers to a DEC-licensed nuisance wildlife control operator (NWCO). Very often the right advice is simply to wait it out: the animals will leave on their own.

You are also not legally required to go out and pick up sick or injured wildlife. Many rehabilitators do when time and money permit. Remember that you are a volunteer, and you can say no.

Safety travels down the phone line

Your advice to a member of the public carries real risk. Collect as much information as you can about the species and how it is behaving, then use your knowledge of that animal's natural behavior and its potential for zoonotic disease to advise on careful handling.

Try to avoid having the caller physically handle the animal at all.
Recommend gloves, and thorough handwashing afterward.
Many smaller animals can be gently pushed into a pet carrier or cardboard box with a broom.
If the rescuer was injured, or had physical contact with a sick animal, refer them to their own health practitioner.

From the field

A caller has a fledgling robin in a shoebox. She chased it for five minutes to catch it and is proud of the rescue. You now have to tell her the bird was fine, and that she should put it back. How do you say that without making her regret calling you? Lead with the biology, not the correction: fledglings leave the nest a week before they can fly, the parents are nearby and feeding it, and putting it back under the same bush is what gives it the best chance. Then thank her, and ask her to keep the cat in for two days. She is now an ally instead of an embarrassed stranger.

This lesson is part of the NY Wildlife Rehabilitator Exam course. Open it in the course to answer the retrieval checks that go with it, track what you have read, and quiz the whole unit. Lessons, quizzes and the glossary are free.

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