While rescuing a lost kitten or two may seem like an obvious task, it’s not always a good idea.
Especially if the kittens you find behind your shed aren’t actually kittens.
A Phoenix resident surrendered the kittens they found in late April to the Arizona Humane Society, which completed a full medical examination and determined that these kittens were in fact kits, Jennifer Armbruster, a spokeswoman for the Humane Society, shared with USA TODAY .
They were able to quickly determine that these kitten-looking creatures were not your common household pets. The pair were later identified as gray foxes.
“And it turns out they were gray foxes, which didn’t surprise me — they both look like brown spots when they’re small,” Kim Carr, animal care manager at SWCC, told ABC15.
These kits are currently in the care of the Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and release of injured and orphaned wildlife.
“They will undergo rehabilitation and be released into the wild when they are old enough to be on their own. This story also serves as an important reminder that animal mothers offer the best chance of survival for children like these,” said Armbruster.
‘Baby’ szn officially underway, increase in seemingly abandoned animals
Carr says they typically care for hundreds of wildlife, including kits and darters, during the summer months.
“Right it’s the beginning of what we call baby season. Wild animals, depending on the species, begin to have their young in March, April, May or June. Sometimes they’ll have them all summer long,” Carr said.
Carr says the time period is always “very intense” because they never know how many wild animals they will be caring for. The kits, however, are the organization’s first official babies of the season. It may be tempting to take kittens or wild animals that look like kittens, but it’s probably best not to.
“We want people to contact us or their local rehab center… because nine times out of 10 they don’t need to be rescued,” Carr said. These animal mothers often go out to hunt or forage for food, leaving their babies for long periods of time.
Taking them from the home while the mother is away is akin to kidnapping, which is not good because “wild mothers are as protective of their babies as we are of our own children.”
The Arizona Humane Society echoes the sentiment, writing that “human intervention is not typically required.”
“In fact, the best thing we can do is leave the kittens alone. The mother will likely return soon and it is critical that the kittens remain in her care as she offers the best chance of survival.”
If the mother does not return within eight hours, it is very likely that the kittens or wild animals have been abandoned.
Kits will be released, they need to ‘stay wild’
It may be a little difficult to understand the existence of gray foxes in the desert, but Carr says they are actually the most common type of fox in Arizona.
“People find this very strange. They say ‘I’ve never seen gray foxes’. They are out there and even in urban areas,” Carr said.
It turns out that they are also very adaptable creatures, eating anything and everything they come across to survive. They also like to climb things, just like cats. The unnamed kits are in good health, consuming fox soup with their “needle-sharp teeth.”
Fox soup is a special concoction made with a mixture of formula, applesauce, baby food, berries, meat, chopped rats, according to Carr.
Carr says they are preparing the animals for release, hoping they will get “big enough” and “exhibit some pretty wild behaviors.”
“We are going to create a really suitable habitat for them, with a water source, lots of food and trees. Then they will be released,” Carr said. They did not name the brothers, both boys, in an attempt to keep them as wild as possible.
But she can say that she has a more dominant and wild personality, known for jumping and fighting with her brother. While the other has a more common denominator.
“It’s interesting to see how they evolve and see their different personalities… [But] foxes are one of those animals that can lose their fear of people very quickly, so we are definitely doing everything in our power to keep them wild.”
