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

1st Response Wildlife Traps and Humanely Releases Hog-nosed Skunk

Skunks in greater Tucson, north in Saddlebrooke, and south to Green Valley, and Tubac, can be a real nuisance.  Earlier this year, there were two different reports of dozens of cases of rabid skunks south of Tucson.  While skunks are known to carry rabies, more often, skunks, left to themselves live and thrive doing what they normally do, foraging for insects, worms, fruit, seeds, rodents, etc.  However, when skunks move into an area where they begin to build a home under a porch, in a shed, or destroy a vegetable or flower garden, 1^st Response Wildlife is happy to work with a homeowner or business owner to capture and humanely relocate an individual or a family of skunks.

Four skunks are found in Arizona-Spotted, Striped, Hooded, and Hog-nosed skunks.  Since skunks hunt at and after dusk, Arizona residents do not routinely see skunks destroying their gardens or digging under sheds, patios, or setting up shop under a manufactured home.  Hog-nosed skunks are not seen in the valley as frequently as their more common relative, the striped skunk but, they are larger and, when they begin to dig in and around a home, the Hog-nosed skunk can create a fair bit of damage.

A homeowner, northwest of Tucson, contacted 1^st Response Wildlife with a skunk problem.  It seems that there was some animal digging in the flower garden, possibly looking for worms or grubs. Its digging was destroying the plant roots and killing plants.  Below you can see a hole where the dead plant to the right used to be and, clearly, although this is but one of many plants destroyed, continued digging and destruction of this kind was ruining this homeowner's garden.

The homeowner was not sure what kind of animal it was but, after installing a motion detecting camera, the picture below confirmed it was a Hog-nosed skunk.

1^st Response Wildlife set some traps and, as you can see in the picture below, the Hog-nosed skunk was captured and was ready for relocation. 

Since the homeowner was upset at the amount of real damage to the flower garden, 1s Response Wildlife determined that the best strategy for a new home for the skunk would be miles away in a safe and comfortable environment.  Below is a picture of the skunk’s transportation with a backdrop of safe location where it will be released back into the wild.

Once the trap is positioned, the trap is opened and the skunk is encouraged to leave and begin getting acquainted with its new surroundings.  The video which can be viewed at the URL below, shows that it took a little coaxing with several squirts of water to get the skunk to leave the security of its temporary home-the skunk trap.  You will see that, as the skunk exits the trap, it stops, looks back, and as it begins to realize its freedom, at first takes a defensive stance.  It then walks away from the trap, directly toward 1^st Response’s beautiful assistant.  Please notice that, at no time, did the skunk feel threatened and did not even posture as if it were going to spray.  This is a great example which dispels the myth that skunks always spray when they come in contact with humans.  In this case, the Hog-nosed skunk was in close proximity twice and did not spray.  Click on the link below to watch the video of the release.

http://youtu.be/4vSSi_TLZtQ

After the Hog-nosed is out of the trap, the picture below is a still of its investigating its surroundings before it eventually wandered off into the desert.

If you think you have a skunk problem, find that an animal is digging in your garden, under your shed, or you have small animals/pets you are worried might come in contact with animals that roam around after dark, please give 1^st Response Wildlife a call.

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, hawks, ducks, squirrels (ardilla), peacocks, 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!

Saguaro Cactus Boot

Here in the Sonoran Desert, we are blessed to be the home of the Saguaro Cactus.  They are seemingly everywhere.  Animals and especially birds love Saguaros for a whole list of reasons.  When the Saguaro bloom, the white winged dove can be seen sitting on them helping pollinate them as they sip the flower’s nectar.  As a perch and lookout point, all manner of hawks, wrens, quail, and even bobcats find the top of a Saguaro an excellent vantage point from which to survey the area, as a place of rest, or even a platform from which to hunt.

Inside the Saguaro cactus, however, is a place that birds discovered, centuries ago, is a haven from the desert heat and a safe place to build a nest.  High off the ground, a hole drilled into a Saguaro by a Gila Woodpecker or Gilded Flicker provides safety from predators.  More importantly, creating a nesting place inside a Saguaro, where the resulting temperature is several degrees lower than the intense desert heat, is a major plus.

Creating a nesting home or hideout inside a Saguaro, however, is not an overnight job.  First, a hole is created by one of the birds mentioned above or others, which creates a hole that continues inside to become a cavity large enough to accommodate a nest.  The Saguaro, in response to this invasion or injury, responds in order to defend itself and reduce water loss, by secreting a protective substance to “patch,” itself-almost like first aid, called a Saguaro Boot.  This can take a year.  (It should be noted that insects also burrow into and create homes in the Saguaro.  The Saguaro also creates a protective “Boot,” around these invasions, but they are much smaller and are not large enough to be used by birds.)

When a bird compromises the outer skin of the Saguaro, creates a hole and then drills in and downward, the Saguaro responds, by depositing a hard substance, called callus tissue that contains a woody substance, lignin, which surrounds the hole made for a nest.  This response is good for the cactus, because it prevents the loss of water and, it is great for the animals because of the safety it affords, its lower temperatures and, because it is waterproof, it ensures the young will be safe and dry.  The result is a lined cavity which is then used by several different kinds of birds as a hiding place, a place to build a nest, or a respite from the heat of the afternoon sun.

Called a Saguaro Boot, these internal chambers can be expanded, over the years, if additional carve-outs and expansions are made by subsequent nesting birds that take advantage of the initial wound.  To protect itself, the Saguaro continues to deposit the resinous protective shield.  In the life of a Saguaro, the Saguaro Boot retains its structure.  Even after the Saguaro dies and the external skin decays, you may see, internal to a Saguaro “skeleton,” a boot that remains fairly intact.

The Saguaro Boot then, becomes a destination for a variety of bird families as a place to raise their young.  Some species will use a specific Saguaro Boot just once, and others, will return.  In a previous post, I mentioned that small owls, such as Screech Owls, Elf Owls and the like will use the Saguaro Boot as a nesting place.  In addition any number of finches, sparrows, purple martins and others also find the Boot, a great nesting option.

If you find a cute furry family of owls or the like using one of these in your backyard, enjoy them and leave them alone.  If however, your dogs or, maybe even neighborhood children are disturbing them, call me at 1st Response Wildlife 520-260-9517 so that I can move them into a safer place in the wild.

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), 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!

Tucson Humane Wildlife Animal Trapping & Removal

Hi, my name is Josh Waling and I have loved animals since the day I was born. I live in the heart of the Sonoran Desert-Tucson, Arizona, which is one of the most unique places in the world. We have as much indigenous wildlife as the Peruvian and Amazon jungles. I have been catching and handling exotic reptiles for over 25 years. I've been humanely trapping nuisance wildlife here in the Sonoran Desert for 10+ years and I love my job. I get to help sick, injured or orphaned animals find their way back to the wild. I also like to educate the public about our animals here in the Sonoran Desert to help both people and wildlife live together harmoniously. My passion is reptiles, but I have found a love for working with all animals including bobcats, skunks, rattlesnakes, coyotes, ringtails, raccoons, coatimundi, badgers, javelina, and even domestic dogs. So, I hope everyone will enjoy following my adventures. Check out the posts, videos and pictures below to see what I've been up to lately. :) Since I have a GoPro head mounted camera, and a number of field cameras that capture photos and video day or night, if there are any animals or reptiles you would like to see that I haven't posted, feel free to email me.

 Give me a call if you need help with any animals that may have found their way onto your property and need to find a way back to their home, ask for an education session or just call for information on animals you would like to know more about. I would be happy to chat with you and, if you need my services, I will be there in a timely and professional fashion to remove them from your home and help them find their way back to either nature or a proper rehab facility. Thanks!

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

Thanks. Josh

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), skunks, coyotes, pack rats, gila monsters (monstruos de gila), rabbits (canejo), owls, pigeons bats, squirrels (ardilla), coatimundi (gato solo), coyotes, badgers, possums, javelina, ringtail, rock squirrels, exotics, 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!