Staff at a Virginia nature center donned a red fox mask as they fed an orphaned baby kit that was less than 24 hours old when it was found.
Melissa Stanley, executive director of the Richmond Wildlife Center, was caught wearing a fox mask and rubber gloves while feeding the small animal admitted to the center last month.
When the kit was first found by a man walking his dog in Richmond, she was less than 24 hours old and her umbilical stump was still attached.
In a video shared by the center on Facebook, the baby kit can be seen sitting on top of a large stuffed fox as Stanley fed her milk from a syringe.
The approach is to ensure that “the orphans raised in captivity are not imprinted or habituated to humans,” the center wrote in the post.
Staff at a Virginia wildlife center put on a red fox mask while feeding an orphaned baby kit that was less than 24 hours old when it was found
In a video shared by the center on Facebook, the baby kit can be seen sitting on top of a large stuffed fox as Stanley gave her milk from a syringe
Melissa Stanley, executive director of the Richmond Wildlife Center, was caught wearing a fox mask and rubber gloves while feeding the small animal admitted to the center last month.
Stanley told me Associated press that the man who found the orphaned kit was initially a kitten and turned her over to the Richmond Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Nature center staff were able to find the den of the baby kit’s mother, as well as three fox kittens the same age as the one in the video.
But the whereabouts of the mother fox remain unknown, with the chief land inspector saying last month that foxes had been confined or removed.
The baby kit could fall from a trap or from the back of the trapper’s truck, Stanley said.
“We have been able to find fox kits that are the same age and weight as ours and are working to determine what is in the best interest of the foxes,” the staff wrote.
“Whether they should be handed over to us, or whether we should hand over ours to them. Either way, it’s in this Fox’s best interest to get it together with other Foxes her own age.”
Staff take turns feeding the kit every two to four hours, all wearing a fox mask and gloves.
While caring for the orphans, they “minimize human noises, create visual barriers, reduce the number of handling operations, reduce multiple transfers between different facilities and wear species-appropriate masks.”
Stanley told the Associated Press that the man who found the orphaned kit initially found a kitten and turned her over to the Richmond Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Staff take turns feeding the kit every two to four hours, all wearing a fox mask and gloves
Meanwhile, nature center staff also found a large stuffed animal meant to mimic the kit’s mother, and a smaller stuffed animal meant to resemble her friend.
“The goal is to release animals back into the wild, not only to give them a greater chance of survival, but also to recognize their own kind and reproduce to continue their wild population,” Stanley said.
The kit will be turned over to the Animal Education and Rescue Organization and eventually released back into the wild, Stanley added.
In addition to sharing the milking time video, the staff got started a fundraising pagewho received more than $400 Tuesday evening.
In addition to syringes and gauze, the center also needs to purchase prey, as it won’t be long before she transitions to a diet of solids mixed with milk and then whole prey.