[Animals] What should you do if you find a wild animal on the street or in your home?

[#Wittels-]

Finding a wild animal poses a risk to you and the individual. It is rare, but it can happen.

Meeting a wild animal does not happen every day. It is not common for a person to see a whale stranded on the beach or a small tiger walking lost on the cement road.

In September of last year, for example, a dead tigrillo was found on the Las Palmas road and, more recently, in November, the environmental authorities rescued an albino tiger from the rural area of Amalfi (photo). On the other side of the world, at the beginning of the year, they found a whale on a beach in Estepona, Spain. It is not common, then, but it does happen, all over the world and with different species of wildlife.

Why?

Turtles, birds, monkeys, other reptiles and even marine animals can leave their habitat by mistake or because of human action and run into people, or they can be victims of illegal trafficking of species, which in Colombia is unfortunately a common practice and one of the main threats to biodiversity. According to the Ministry of the Environment, in 2020 alone it seized 19,580 specimens of fauna and 202,255 of flora.

 

Surely you have seen videos of people freeing or helping these animals, rescuing them from dangerous situations, such as the man who helped a lazy bear to cross a road traveled by cars, or the one who bought birds by the lot to free them, or groups of people gathered by dragging huge whales or dolphins out to sea.

They seem heroic actions, very human, but many times they generate more harm than good, especially for the animals themselves.

We explain, from the hand of the experts and professors of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the Rémington University Institute, Marta Ocampo, professor of the Wild Fauna area, and Mary Cerliz Choperena, what you should do if you have one of these encounters. The important thing is to take care of life.

 

1. What is the protocol to follow?

Regardless of whether it is a reptile, bird, mammal, terrestrial, aerial or marine, the first thing you should do is contact the environmental authority, which in the case of Medellín and some regions of Antioquia and the country is the Metropolitan Area with the Central of Care and Assessment of Wild Fauna, CAV, at number 385 60 00 extension 104, 135, 115 and 138; to Corantioquia at 493 88 88 extension 1293; or to the Environmental Police, requesting it at 123.

Meanwhile, you must not interfere or interact with the animal, preventing it from being touched or moved, since it will be the environmental experts who will know how to handle it, preventing minimal damage to the specimen and to people in the area, without causing additional stress to the animal or any Physical damage. If it is exposed to the sun, yes you can try to generate shade, as long as you do not mani[CENSORED]te it. Once the authority arrives, they will be in charge of the rescue, the release in place, if possible and if the animal is in good condition, or the process of physical and medical analysis and subsequent reintroduction and care.

 

2. What should NOT be done?

Avoid reintroducing or releasing animals yourself; it should be the environmental authority that assesses them and decides if they are in good health. Do not move or touch it, as many times they are babies waiting for their mothers to pick them up, or they are hiding in a place where the mother left them. This occurs with various birds, deer or felines, where the female hides them while searching for food and then returns for them. Observe them for several days and if they definitely don't go for them, call the environmental authority.

Neither release them in the same area nor move them to another place, since each place has numbers and types of key species that work for that ecosystem and introducing species where they will not be able to alter the dynamics. Finally, do not buy or in any way support illegal trafficking. So your plan is to release them or hand them over to the authority, not to understand animals. This only encourages and stimulates the extraction of animals from their natural habitat for illegal trade. What you should do is report.

 

3. Risks for the animal, the ecosystem and for you

If you unknowingly handle the animal, you can harm it, injure any part of its body, injure it, fracture it, cause trauma or alter and stress it to the point where the animal, in its flight, harms itself. If you release it immediately, without prior examinations and analysis, it may die or become ill because it could be in trouble and fail without receiving, contaminate other species or, if it does not know how to hunt, seek its own food or defend itself, die of hunger or victim of some attack or predator.

In addition, they can be gregarious animals that do not survive alone. It must be investigated by the species and the habitat it inhabits, and be clear about the load that the ecosystem supports, knowing the dangers that this animal may face or may represent for other species of fauna and flora. Therefore, authority is essential. For humans there are also risks: they can have an accident in the process, be bitten, knocked down, stung, attacked or poisoned or they can catch some infectious diseases that the animal could carry. Hence, the experts wear gloves, masks, complete equipment and other elements.

 

4. Cases with exception

Every rule has exceptions. There are some that do not wait, that are urgent. There are those who find animals stranded on the beach that will die without water and the only solution is to return them. In these cases, precautions should still be taken: do not handle the animal without gloves, because diseases can be spread to it or to humans; Try not to cause damage or fractures and, in any case, notify the environmental authority.

These strandings, experts explain, are usually realized as a result of human actions such as the noise of boats and jet skis that makes them dislodge, or due to natural causes, such as rising tides. Others, however, may walk away themselves because they know they are going to die. The ideal will always be to have experts, but there may be very remote areas where this is not possible. The recommendation is to take all the measures mentioned above. Remember, also, that if a whale has died and has been in failure for several days, it can explode and its organs and liquids be catapulted meters away, be careful.

 

Link: https://www.elcolombiano.com/tendencias/recomendaciones-sobre-que-hacer-si-se-encuentra-un-animal-silvestre-en-la-calle-o-en-su-casa-KH17238673