1st Response Wildlife - Tucson's Humane Animal Trapping & Removal Services

1st Response Wildlife Reviews the Beauty and Reality of Exotics in Greater Tucson

Exotics in Tucson are found in homes, pet shops, and, to the surprise of many citizens, in and around their homes!  Cute, beautiful, and appealing when they are small, exotics grow, in some cases, to become quite large.   Many of the reptiles, which are available for sale, are the product of breeding to create new colors and designs which make owning them a conversation piece and enhances the experience of raising them as a gorgeous pet.

1^st Response Wildlife is called, from time to time, to capture and/or remove an exotic that has either escaped or, in some cases, has been released because it has gotten either too large or too expensive to feed and maintain.   When I get these calls, if no owner is found, after a physical inspection to make sure the exotic is in good health, I work with businesses that accept exotics.

As a licensed animal trapper and licensed-to-hold by Arizona Game and Fish Department educator, I am a customer of the businesses that sell exotics along with food and other supplies for the reptiles and amphibians I use for my seminars.  My relationship with these businesses is symbiotic because, on one hand, our relationship allows visibility to reptiles they keep and sell and which reptiles and amphibians they will accept to fill out their inventory and, on the other hand, if I need an exotic for a seminar, I can “borrow” a specimen for a day for show-and-tell. 

Recently I was visiting one of the shops I work with, Reptile Specialists, and, with the permission of the owners, I took a few pictures of specimens they have for sale and which represent good examples of what I expect are held as pets by the hundreds here in greater Tucson and certainly in Arizona.  As you can see, these guys are beautiful.  I am posting these pictures to help families, considering exotics, to get a sense of how large an enclosure their pet will eventually need and help them consider what questions they need to ask in regards to food, bedding, and proper environments. (If you are interested in knowing the name of the exotic pictured, just hover your cursor over that picture, and the name of the exotic will appear.)

When you visit shops that sell exotics or attend the reptile shows that are held in Tucson or Phoenix, it is important to remember that recently passed regulations which apply to exotics restrict taking many of them across state lines and, in fact, some species can no longer be sold.  It is always a good idea to check with the shop selling exotics or to query an exhibitor at a reptile show in regards to whether what you have or are considering to acquire is on the approved list.

If you see an exotic in your neighborhood that looks out of place and you do not know the owner, or have one of your own that has somehow gotten out, give 1^st Response Wildlife a call and I would be happy to work with you.  If you are looking for an exotic, there are a number of places in Tucson that have a variety of species and sizes to choose from in addition to national chain pet shops.  Reptile Specialists, Ever Evolving Exotics, and Tropical Kingdom Inc. are a few of the shops that specialize.

Since I have three exotics as part of my collection, I am very familiar with these businesses, and I work with the Arizona Herpetology Association and Arizona Game and Fish Department to ensure indigenous and exotics in Tucson are healthy and treated well.

Thanks for considering 1st Response Wildlife 

Josh's Cell (24/7 Hours): 520-260-9517

Josh Waling is a humane Licensed Animal Trapper who catches and releases wildlife, removing animals including bobcats (lince), snakes, rattlesnakes (serpiente de cascabel), raccoons (mapache), pack rats, gila monsters (monstruos de gila), rabbits (canejo), owls, bats, squirrels (ardilla), coatimundi (gato solo), skunks (mofeta), exotics, and domestic cats and dogs. He delivers service that is professional and fast and he is available 24/7.  Give him a call the next time you hear unusual noises in the attic or crawl spaces in your home or if you see wildlife eating your vegetation, creating nests, and raising their young too close to your pets or children or have an exotic sighting in your neighborhood. 520-260-9517 Thanks!

Pack Rat Trapping and Removal

Pack Rats are everywhere!  When they create their dens far from homes, cars, and businesses, they happily multiply and live out their lives.  They are, however, a favorite prey of raptors, reptiles, and other predators like Ringtail, Foxes, Skunks, and an occasional Coyote. If they take up residence in close proximity to your home or business, things change and they begin to affect you and they can be a real nuisance.  

The name Pack Rat actually covers a number of different species of “Wood Rats,” which live in the southwest.  These little guys build nests and dens in almost anything-rocks, around the roots of Prickly Pear and Agave cactus, your car engine, your grill, in your shed, in your attic, the walls of your home, or behind a storage bin on your patio.   You often discover them when you come across a debris pile, called midden, that can contain Cholla sections, Prickly Pear “ears,” or when you try to start a car/truck that has sat outside for some time and it refuses to start.   (There are lots of stories in Tucson and surrounding areas of $1000+ expenditures to repair the wires of a truck or car that has had Pack Rat damage, a TV service call to investigate a cable outage, or a sprinkler hose leak-all associated with these "rats.")

One of the interesting things I have learned about Pack Rats, in addition to their behavior, and their destructive/nuisance nature, is their value to botanists who research desert/arid plant life over long time periods.  They are called paleobotanists. Packrats will urinate on their midden.  The urine crystallizes and hardens into a substance called amberat.  The amberat, in its hardened form and with the dry conditions in Arizona, actually creates a historical record which, over time, has allowed paleobotanists to look through the contents of the midden and determine what the vegetation was around the time the den was constructed and material gathered to construct the den-kind of a self contained time capsule, if you will.

For the most part, the majority of my Pack Rat calls are related to customer sites where the Pack Rats have become a nuisance.  What customers report are noises in their attic, piles of debris around the base of cactus, their sheds, and holes under the house stuffed with Cholla sections, etc.  Since Pack Rats are, for the most part, nocturnal, unless you surprise one, you will see their midden, but not the rat.  Here is a little fellow that was curious enough, over night, to find himself in my trap.

 

Here is a picture of where he was living.

 

Here is a picture of the midden that he collected to surround his den.

 

What is almost as annoying as having Pack Rats in and around your business and home, is knowing that trapping and removing a Pack Rat from your property is not the end of the story.  Pack Rats are opportunists and, when a den is vacated-after its resident is trapped, another Pack Rat will happily take up residence in that same den, making it larger and adding its own midden.

The best approach to getting rid of a Pack Rat, and subsequent residents of the den/nest you find, is to give 1^st Response Wildlife a call and, along with my trapping service, I can remove the midden and treat the area so that other Pack Rats are discouraged from taking up residence in the same place.  If I trap Pack Rats in your attic or walls, similarly, the entrance holes must be plugged to keep others out. 

Thanks, Wildman Josh :)

Josh's Cell (24/7 Hours): 520-260-9517

Josh Waling is a humane Licensed Animal Trapper who catches and releases wildlife, removing animals including bobcats (lince), snakes, rattlesnakes (serpiente de cascabel), raccoons (mapache), pack rats, gila monsters (monstruos de gila), rabbits (canejo), owls, bats, squirrels (ardilla), coatimundi (gato solo), skunks (mofeta), exotics, and domestic cats and dogs. He delivers service that is professional and fast and he is available 24/7.  Give him a call the next time you hear unusual noises in the attic or crawl spaces in your home or if you see wildlife eating your vegetation, creating nests, and raising their young too close to your pets or children. 520-260-9517 Thanks!