G. sat up front with her camera and took some pictures and video of the program for her own blog. But after reading Mama Bird's post about owls, I thought I'd share G.'s video here because Josh featured a great horned and a saw-whet owl at the program and offered some interesting anecdotes about them.
Not only do the kids enjoy the animals and learn a lot at these kind of programs, the parents get some good advice about working with wildlife as well. One of the key points Josh made at this program was that just because baby animals look cute and helpless doesn't mean you should try to "save" them.
We had well-meaning neighbors drop off a couple of baby raccoons they found near the side of the road (near our house) last year. Our neighbors coaxed the babies in to a cardboard box and brought them to my front door believing my husband (who works at a vet hospital) would know what to do with them.
We did know what to do. We put them right back where they were found that evening.
The next morning the babies were gone, in all likelihood with their mother who had probably been nearby the whole time and had stayed hidden while the good meaning neighbors gathered up her babies to take them away.
Here's Josh's bit of advice about this issue.
- Something you want to keep in mind in case you see any baby wild animals. Leave them where they are. The best thing is to leave them where they are and wait. If you go back the next morning or later that night and they're still there, then call somebody like us (Animal Emergency Services). And we can usually tell from looking out there if there is something wrong with them, if they're sick or if it looks like they're hungry and their parents haven't come. A lot of wild animals though won't come near their babies. The parents are scared of us, the babies aren't. The babies have never met people, they aren't scared of people. The parents are scared of people. As long as we stay around, the parents don't want to come back."
Sparks Ark offers a program each month at the Children's Museum of Maine (the March date just passed) so your kids can meet these animals too. There is also a program being offered at the Maine Wildlife Park in May to offer tips, tricks and ways to discourage wildlife that may be causing trouble in your home or garden.
G. wanted to share some of the photos she took of the animals as well.
saw-whet owl
possum
baby goats a few weeks old
chinchilla
Mini Forum is a day of workshops for 4-Hers held at USM in Gorham each year.
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