July 02, 2009 - Looking after North Fork wildlifeJULY 2, 2009 1 SUFFOLKTIMES.COM
Looking after
North Fork
wildlife
T he lonhrk
Animal
mal Y
jr
BARBARA AND PAUL STOUTENBURGH PHOTOS
Dr. Buffy Hartmann, left, and Gillian Wood - Pultz, executive director of the North Fork Animal Welfare League, check over
the little fawn found, wet and shaking, by the side of a building early one morning.
We received an early- morning call this week
about a fawn that was lying by a contractor's
building and didn't move when the men arrived
to pick up their supplies for work. Four hours late
it was still lying in the same spot. It's not unusual
for a fawn to wait quietly and still for its mother to
return, but it was very young and cold and wet. It
looked like it needed some help.
We called the North Fork Animal Hospital in
Southold, where we
FOCUS ON NATURE were referred to the
animal shelter in
Peconic or Wildlife
Rescue of the Hamp
tons. We contacted
Gillian Wood - Pultz,
f executive director of
the North Fork Ani-
PAUL STOUTENBURGH mal Welfare League,
at the animal shelter
Gillian, along with Dr. Buffy Hartmann, wasted
no time in getting down to check on the little fawn.
When they first arrived, the fawn got to its feet and
made a desperate attempt to break away, but it was
so weak they were able to get hold of it. They found
that its mouth was cold, so probably it had not
been fed in some time. It was wet from the rain and
it had a sore on its leg.
After examining the fawn carefully, the two of
them tried to decide what the best thing would be to
do for this little fawn. They had two choices: leave it
and hope the mother would return to feed and take
care of it, or take it with them for the Wildlife Rescue
people to pick up so the fawn could be cared for
where there are good facilities for doing that.
Then, to make sure it wasn't ready to leave on its
own, as it had attempted to, Dr. Hartmann and Gil-
lian set it down on the ground: It just lay there and
couldn't get up and go on its own. For sure, it needed
help and couldn't wait for its mother to return.
Perhaps the mother wasn't able to have it follow and
had just left it there, or something might have hap-
pened to the mother and she wasn't going to return.
So off it went in good hands to the Southold
Town Animal Shelter. Once Dr. Hartmann and Gil-
lian had seen the condition of the fawn, they con-
tacted Wildlife Rescue of the Hamptons, who were
sending someone to pick it up. We are lucky here
in Southold to have such willing and able workers
who watch out for our wildlife.
Not long after the fawn was on its way, we received
a call from Jane Minerva, who had been having coffee
in her backyard on one of our nice sunny days when
Right: This little
IoMst fawn tried to get up on
its own, but was unable to. It
was picked up by the good
people from the Southold
town Animal Shelter.
all of a sudden she looked up and saw a large turtle
moving quickly across her back lawn.
She gave us a call, and we headed over to see it
and take a photo. Her husband, John, put one of
the big colored square milk containers over it in
order to stop it from moving away before we could
get there. The turtle, about 12 to 14 inches across,
filled that milk container, with its toes going out
through the sides.
This big turtle was probably looking for a place to
lay its eggs. I mentioned recently this game situation
with box turtles, as much of their habitat has been
changed or destroyed and they are having a hard timc
finding any place to lay their eggs. Hopefully this one
was finally able to find a. place to lay her eggs.
Just a reminder to anyone who finds one of these
large snapping turtles — beware. Do not attempt
to pick it up or get too close to it. Best to observe it
from a distance.
Left: A big snapping turtle
was seen this week making its
way quickly across a big lawn,
no doubt trying to find turtle
spot to lay its eggs. The
of
pictured found a g spot
in a golf course sand trap,
where it can be seen covering
uo the a s.