[SBAS Index]

Santa Barbara Aububon Society

Ten Easy Ways to Help Wildlife

1. Prevent your pet cats and dogs from injuring wildlife.
Many injured animals are found each year with terrible wounds from dog and cat attacks. Don't allow your pets to run free on their own - raise your cats as indoor pets, for their own safety as well. Indoor cats live longer.
2. Keep birds from flying into big windows or glass patio enclosures.
Hang streamers or put up bird silhouettes on the glass surface. Other ideas can be found at www.flap.org.

3. Respect all wild creatures.
Tell your children not to destroy nests or other wildlife homes. It is a privilege, not a pain, to have them near us.

4. Pick up litter.
Six-pack connectors, fishing line, kite string, plastics, cigarette butts, and styrofoam all are known to kill and injure thousands of wild animals each year - by both ingestion and/or entanglement.

5. As a general rule, leave infant wildlife alone.
They are not always truly orphaned. A parent may be nearby or will return soon. Be sure they are in need of help before you remove them from the nest area. If you find young birds on the ground, make every effort to return them to their nest. (For more information, see I Found a Baby Bird!)
6. Cover all chimneys and vents, and any entry way underneath your house.
This prevents birds, skunks, or raccoons from taking up residence and either getting trapped, becoming a nuisance, and/or potentially being euthanized by Animal Control officers (skunks and raccoons will not be relocated, but instead euthanized because of their rabies potential). Eliminating access to your home is a much kinder alternative.

7. Trim trees and bushes in fall, not spring after the baby bird season.
Check trees thoroughly to make sure there are no active nests or residents in cavities before cutting trees down. Even better, avoid cutting down dead trees if they pose no safety hazard, since they provide homes for a wide variety of wildlife.

8. Use non-toxic products in your garden and home.
Please don't use rat or mouse poisons. Beneficial rodent control species such as hawks, owls, and falcons may catch and eat poison debilitated rodents, then succumb to the poisons themselves. Use spring or glue traps. They are less pleasant to use but WILL save wild species such as hawks, owls, coyotes, raccoons, skunks, or even your house cat or dog.

9. Do not attempt to raise or keep wildlife yourself.
Not only is it illegal, but captivity spent with untrained humans often ends up with sickness, sometimes death, or irreversible habituation to humans (imprinting). It is difficult to identify nestlings, and what may be good for one bird can kill another, since some birds are seed eaters, some only eat insect, and some need both. What's good for one species may kill another. Additionally, young wild animals raised without contact with their own species fail to develop survival skills and fear of humans. This almost always results in their inability to adapt to life in the wild. Care by qualified and licensed wildlife rehabilitators offers them the best chance at survival.
10. If you find a truly injured or orphaned wild animal . . .
call Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network for assistance at 805-966-9005. If you're not sure if the animal really needs help, Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network can assist you.

Website information contacts:
 Chapter office address:
5679 Hollister Ave., Suite 5b
Goleta, CA 93117
805-964-1468
Chapter email: audubon@rain.org
Website by:
Technical Specialties
©Copyright 2000-2005, Technical Specialties
Updated: September 19, 2003