Why is the little fawn all alone in the woods? Is the unmoving bird on my patio dead? Are the baby rabbits nesting in our backyard abandoned? Help! There’s a squirrel on the road with a broken leg. A lawn mower ran over a box turtle—can we save it?
The Appalachian Wildlife Refuge (AWR) hotline receives thousands of such calls each year from concerned folks who stumble upon animals that may need rescue. The volunteers who answer these inquiries help the finders (a term for people who find wildlife that appears to be in distress) navigate the sometimes tricky mission of aiding animals injured or orphaned.
“Wildlife hotlines serve a number of important purposes,” says Sue Massi, an AWR volunteer who helped create the organization’s hotline (828.633.6364) eight years ago. “We provide guidance to finders to determine if the critter is truly in need of intervention and, if so, the appropriate response.”…