Babies have filled up, as they do every year at this time of year, at ANIMA – Wildlife Conservation Society, responding to the need for care for orphaned fox cubs, puppies, chicks and all kinds of wildlife.
“The period when we can’t catch our breath has begun. It will be completed towards the end of the summer. Every year, at this time of year, we need you more than ever,” reads a social media appeal from the club, asking for financial and volunteer support to meet the increased needs.
“Every year, from mid-April, a major intensification of work begins in all care centres, which peaks in June and calms down after the end of July. This is because it is the breeding period of most wild animals,” explains ANIMA president Maria Ganoti, speaking to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency.
Most of the imports are orphaned animals, either chicks or pups. As Ms Ganoti explained, an animal can be orphaned because its parents will die, or because someone will destroy its nest, or because it left the nest prematurely and was lost or became prey for another animal.
“Apart from very small birds, small mammals such as foxes, skunks, hedgehogs come to the care centre. The babies are very demanding because they need very frequent feeding, and the little birds even every 20 minutes. They need special food, which we bring from abroad, and special milk. All this is costly and time-consuming so we mobilise many volunteers, especially at this time when the full capacity of a care centre is needed.”
According to Ms Ganoti, people can help by volunteering or symbolically adopting an animal housed at the facility, contributing the amount needed by ANIMA to care for it until its release. An adoption can be undertaken by an individual or collectively – for example by a family or a school class.
“Donations help us to cover our operating costs which are currently on the rise. Just think of the need for electricity since many babies are in incubators.” Moreover, apart from the demanding upbringing, re-homing is even more challenging because the orphans have not been taught survival skills by their parents and their release is required to be done gradually.
“Often, with early heat waves in May and early June, there is a “war” at the Care Centre because all the young in the nests start to roast from the heat and in their distress they jump out of the nest. If the heatwave comes at the end of June, they have grown a little and can feather,” says Ms Ganoti. And for those who think there is no wildlife in the cities, she cites the examples of Trikala and Karditsa, where many circinets make their nests in tall buildings, and Volos, with dozens of baby terns on rooftops.
ANIMA – Wildlife Protection Association is an association founded in 2005 by people with many years of experience in the care of wild animals in Greece, as well as veterinarians, biologists, foresters and friends of nature and wildlife. It works with expert scientists who form the Scientific Committee of the organisation.
Anima’s main activity is the care and reintroduction of wild animals into their natural environment.
