Wildlife worker dresses like fox to help care for newborn fox

RICHMOND, Va. — Workers at the Richmond Wildlife Center in Virginia have been going the extra mile to help support orphaned animals, including a newborn fox kit.

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The wildlife center posted a video on Facebook earlier in the week that showed its Executive Director Melissa Stanley wearing a red fox mask and rubber gloves while she was trying to feed the kit, according to The Associated Press. She donned the mask so that the kit would think it was being fed by its mother.

“It’s important to make sure that the orphans that are raised in captivity do not become imprinted upon or habituated to humans,” the Richmond Wildlife Center said. “To prevent that, we minimize human sounds, create visual barriers, reduce handling, reduce multiple transfers amongst different facilities, and wear masks for the species.”

The wildlife center received the fox when she was just a day old, according to a March 1 post from the wildlife center. Her umbilical cord was still attached.

“She weighs just 80 grams, her teeth are not in, her eyes are sealed, and she is deaf at this age,” the center said.

The baby fox was admitted to the wildlife center on Feb. 29. The AP reported that a man and his dog found her in an alley. At first, the baby fox was believed to be a kitten and was brought to Richmond Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

“The goal is to release animals back into the wild, not only to give them a greater chance of survival but to recognize their own species and to reproduce to carry on their wildlife population,” Stanley said, according to the AP.

Kai Williams, director of the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council, said she had never heard about humans dressing as foxes to provide care, according to The Washington Post. She said it’s a technique used for caring for birds, who rely more on their sight than their sense of smell.

“Something you’d see much more is somebody dressing up in a whole crane suit or a brolga — something like that,” she said, according to the Post.

“Sometimes they’ll just dress up in a covering that hides their shape a little bit, so they don’t quite look like a human, they look like a weird mass,” Williams added. “Or they’ll use a hand puppet.”

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