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Coyote pups are first-time guests
  
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By Michele Sample
Donna Ralph, president of the Ellicott Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Larkspur welcomed about a dozen coyotes to her facility in 2008. Typically, the coyotes that come to the center are injured adults, but last year was the first time pups were guests.
“Their care is pretty much hands-off and stress-free,” Ralph said. “With as little human contact as possible.”
The term “hands-off” refers to having a veterinarian treat and provide lab work on the animal and then keep them as wild as possible until they are ready to be released. That means no cuddling or playtime.
Ralph said the coyotes are fed the best food for that species and are able to roam in properly equipped outdoor enclosures prepared for the age and ability or disability of the animal.
“Many times when people find baby wildlife, they play with them and socialize them to people,” Ralph said. “That is a death sentence for the animal.”
The pups came to the center after the Windsor tornado in May, the Peyton and Calhan fires in June and after severe weather in the Falcon area.
“Coyote pups have entirely different needs than mature coyotes,” Ralph said. “Properly raising them from pups into properly socialized, mentally healthy animals to succeed in the wild was a challenge.”
Ralph received help and advice from her friend, a coyote and wolf expert, Sue Cranston, founder and director of Indigo Mountain Nature Center in Lake George.
According to Ralph, they were fortunate in that several of the pups came to the rehabilitation center at about the same time period.
“They were of similar size and age and were raised together for proper socialization to coyotes,” Ralph said. “Not people.”
Ever since the Ellicott Wildlife Rehabilitation Center became incorporated in May 2002 and received Internal Revenue Service nonprofit status the following May, Ralph said people have questioned why they save these animals, considered by some, to be a nuisance.
“I’m not the one who put them on the planet,” Ralph said. “And it’s not my place to decide who has the right to exist and who doesn’t.”
Ralph said the center was created when she kept finding injured animals and took them to a veterinarian in Denver. The vet informed her about licensing to care for wildlife and she went through the process and began caring for wildlife in the Lakewood-Littleton area, where most of the animals came from Chatfield Reservoir.
She and the other volunteers soon began to realize they needed more room to care for the animals, so they ended up in the Larkspur-Ellicott area nine years ago, and have grown to be one of the largest wildlife rehab centers in Colorado. The center is licensed for all birds of prey, eagles and small and medium-sized mammals.
“The need grows every year,” Ralph said.
Even though wildlife rehabbers are state and federally licensed, their funding relies on donations.
“We all work regular jobs, in addition to our work with wildlife,” Ralph said.
The center is kept closed from the public and sometimes seems like an invisible entity, only to keep the wildlife “wild.”
Ralph was pleased to report that the coyotes at the center were released and from all accounts have joined the resident wild coyote packs.
To contact the center, write to Ellicott Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, P.O. Box 75069, Colorado Springs, CO 80970 or visit www.ellicottwildlife.com.
“Their care is pretty much hands-off and stress-free,” Ralph said. “With as little human contact as possible.”
The term “hands-off” refers to having a veterinarian treat and provide lab work on the animal and then keep them as wild as possible until they are ready to be released. That means no cuddling or playtime.
Ralph said the coyotes are fed the best food for that species and are able to roam in properly equipped outdoor enclosures prepared for the age and ability or disability of the animal.
“Many times when people find baby wildlife, they play with them and socialize them to people,” Ralph said. “That is a death sentence for the animal.”
The pups came to the center after the Windsor tornado in May, the Peyton and Calhan fires in June and after severe weather in the Falcon area.
“Coyote pups have entirely different needs than mature coyotes,” Ralph said. “Properly raising them from pups into properly socialized, mentally healthy animals to succeed in the wild was a challenge.”
Ralph received help and advice from her friend, a coyote and wolf expert, Sue Cranston, founder and director of Indigo Mountain Nature Center in Lake George.
According to Ralph, they were fortunate in that several of the pups came to the rehabilitation center at about the same time period.
“They were of similar size and age and were raised together for proper socialization to coyotes,” Ralph said. “Not people.”
Ever since the Ellicott Wildlife Rehabilitation Center became incorporated in May 2002 and received Internal Revenue Service nonprofit status the following May, Ralph said people have questioned why they save these animals, considered by some, to be a nuisance.
“I’m not the one who put them on the planet,” Ralph said. “And it’s not my place to decide who has the right to exist and who doesn’t.”
Ralph said the center was created when she kept finding injured animals and took them to a veterinarian in Denver. The vet informed her about licensing to care for wildlife and she went through the process and began caring for wildlife in the Lakewood-Littleton area, where most of the animals came from Chatfield Reservoir.
She and the other volunteers soon began to realize they needed more room to care for the animals, so they ended up in the Larkspur-Ellicott area nine years ago, and have grown to be one of the largest wildlife rehab centers in Colorado. The center is licensed for all birds of prey, eagles and small and medium-sized mammals.
“The need grows every year,” Ralph said.
Even though wildlife rehabbers are state and federally licensed, their funding relies on donations.
“We all work regular jobs, in addition to our work with wildlife,” Ralph said.
The center is kept closed from the public and sometimes seems like an invisible entity, only to keep the wildlife “wild.”
Ralph was pleased to report that the coyotes at the center were released and from all accounts have joined the resident wild coyote packs.
To contact the center, write to Ellicott Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, P.O. Box 75069, Colorado Springs, CO 80970 or visit www.ellicottwildlife.com.
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