Call of the Wild Animal Control

06/03/2026

05/30/2026

A bat circling the yard at dusk is hunting. A bat inside the house needs an exit. A bat on the ground during the day needs a call to a rehabber. Three situations, three responses.

🌿 Bat flying in the yard at dusk — normal. Leave it.

Bat inside the house — open a window or door. Turn off interior lights, leave the exit lit. She'll find it. If she doesn't, place a container over her with thick gloves, slide cardboard underneath, release outside.

Bat on the ground during the day — don't touch with bare hands. Call animal control or a wildlife rehabilitator.

Bat in the bedroom overnight — contact your doctor. Post-exposure evaluation is recommended because a bite may not be felt during sleep.

🐾 The bat in the soffit has likely been there for multiple seasons. She returns because the structure works as a roost and the yard produces insects after dark.

Three situations. Three calm responses. Most encounters need nothing more than an open window 🌿

05/24/2026

🐢

World Turtle Day reminds us to act quickly for these creatures. You have about five seconds to ensure safety.

The entire guide:

🐢 Step one — identify:

- Snapping turtle (large, spiky tail, aggressive posture): do not grab near the head — her neck reaches two-thirds of the shell length. Use a towel, floor mat, or flat object slid underneath to push her across. Or grip the very back edge of the shell only. Lift briefly. Set down. Not by the tail — it damages vertebrae

- Painted, box, spotted, or any smaller turtle: pick up by the shell sides, one hand on each side behind the front legs. Keep low to the ground

🐢 Step two — direction:

- Always move her to the side she was heading. If you move her backward, she turns around and crosses again. She's going somewhere specific

🐢 Step three — release:

- Set her down on the far shoulder, off the pavement. Then leave

🐢 Two exceptions:

- Box turtle (high dome, orange markings) — she's terrestrial. Do not put her in a pond. She can drown. Move her across the road only

- Turtle sitting on the shoulder and not moving — she may be nesting. Leave her. She'll finish on her own

Five seconds. One decision. A life that may be older than yours.

05/21/2026

Raccoon eviction from a garage in southbourough today .....after we got mom and her 2 kits out of the garage and the garage secure, we place her 2 kits in our nesting box and reintroduced mom.....we then moved the nesting box to the customers back yard, unlocked the box and tonight she should relocate her kits to a new nesting site on her own !
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Call of the Wild Animal Control

05/17/2026

Vid #2 after mom was reintroduced to her 4 kits we gave her some time to calm down and nurse her kits ......after repairs were done we quietly unlocked the door so she could move em to a new nesting sight!

05/17/2026

Vid #1 we had a mother raccoon make her home in someone's seasonal cottage in Belchertown the other day ....we were able to trap her ....seal off the entrypoints and reunite mom and kits in a nesting box where she was able to relocate her kits elsewhere in a humane fashion!

05/03/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17F7zLRmRK/

Don’t touch the babies.

04/12/2026

5 Minutes Daily Hack

You're going to find baby animals in your yard. Most of them don't need your help.

Here's the decision for each one.

A baby rabbit alone in a grass nest — the mother visits once or twice a day for a few minutes, at dawn or dusk. She stays away on purpose because her scent attracts predators. The babies are not abandoned. Lay two thin sticks in an X over the nest and check in twelve hours. Sticks disturbed means mom visited.

A fawn lying alone in tall grass — the mother left it there deliberately. Fawns have almost no scent for the first week and predators can't find them. A fawn lying still with its ears up is hiding, not hurt. The mother returns several times a day to nurse. Contact a rehabilitator only if the fawn is walking in circles, visibly injured, or vocalizing continuously for many hours.

A baby bird on the ground — if it's feathered, hopping, eyes open, and roughly tennis-ball sized, it's a fledgling. Leave it. The parents are nearby and feeding it. If it's naked with eyes closed, it's a nestling that fell from the nest — put it back. The myth that parents reject a baby touched by humans is false. If it's visibly injured, contact a rehabilitator.

A baby squirrel that approaches you needs help — healthy babies don't approach humans. One sitting in a tree or on a roof may need to be observed a bit longer.

A baby opossum longer than about eight inches nose to rump is independent and on schedule. Smaller than that and alone, it may have fallen off the mother's back — contact a rehabilitator.

A baby turtle is independent from the moment it hatches. It never meets its mother. There is no such thing as an abandoned baby turtle.

🌿 The universal rule:

Before touching any baby animal, call a wildlife rehabilitator. Describe what you see. They'll tell you what to do

Most baby animals look abandoned because being alone is their survival strategy

Wait and watch from a distance for a couple of hours before intervening — in most cases the parent returns on a schedule you can't see

If a cat is near a fledgling, move the bird under a dense shrub within thirty feet. The parents find it by sound

The instinct to help is good. The information to help correctly is what makes the difference 🌿 To find a permitted wildlife rehabilitator in MA, please go to https://www.mass.gov/info-details/find-a-wildlife-rehabilitator to find the one closest to you!
In other states you can go to AHNOW.ORG you can search for help by zip code or location.

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