- October 23, 2024
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Lake Club's Roger Riehm loves saving animals, but he also knows there is a price to pay after some rescues.
Such was the case a few days after Hurricane Milton took its toll on the region's wildlife.
The price?
A stinky car.
Riehm, a volunteer who rescues animals and then takes them to the Wildlife Center of Southwest Florida in Venice, was called to an area in the Polo Club where four baby skunks had been orphaned and flooded out of their nest.
"It was unfortunate, because there were five and one of them already had passed," Riehm said. "They were too little to take care of themselves. Skunks have to stay with their mom at that age. They never leave the nest when they are that young."
The skunks were babies, so Riehm didn't have any trouble getting them into the car for the ride to the Wildlife Center of Southwest Florida. But they weren't too young to react to a possible threat.
"They had the instinct to lift their back ends up," Riehm said. "My car is stinky still. It's going to take time (to get rid of the smell)."
Riehm, who owns a produce company, was asked if his wife was annoyed by the awful smell.
"My wife (Laurie Riehm) is a rescuer, too," he said. "She would have done the same thing."
They are doing the same thing a lot more often than usual due to the recent hurricanes.
"We are inundated with five or six rescues each every day," Roger Riehm said. "We have squirrels falling out of trees, rabbits' nests flooding, so many bird wings battered."
Roger Riehm currently was trying to rescue a gallinule with a broken leg that was resting on the bank of Lake Uihlein at Main Street at Lakewood Ranch. As Riehm approached the bird, the gallinule hopped back into the water and swam away from the shore.
"Sometimes you have to make a decision about what is best for the animal," Riehm said. "If they can fly, that is a good thing because they can get away. We can come back another day."
But this particular gallinule had a badly broken leg and was in need of attention.
Eventually, the bird came back to the bank, and with help from fellow rescue volunteer Sandy Ulrickson, Riehm managed to get a net over the bird.
Ulrickson threw out some bird food to attract the gallinule.
"When they get injured, they get very cautious," said Ulrickson, who lives in Panther Ridge. "But these birds are getting fed every morning so they are used to it. We don't like to feed them to get them out (in the open), because that is creating bad habits. So it's a matter of how bad the injury is."
After Riehm threw the net over the bird, both he and Ulrickson grabbed it. Riehm, who said Ulrickson taught him everything he knows about rescuing animals, said they have special gloves to wear, both neither wore them in this case.
"These aren't so bad," Ulrickson said of the gallinule pecking at her hands. "Anhingas will go for your eyes."
Like the Riehms, Ulrickson has been going non-stop in terms of rescues following the storms.
She is dealing with baby squirrels, rabbits and raccoons that have been abandoned or flooded out. She gets calls because animals have found a door that most likely was blown open by the storm, and the animals have made a new home inside.
Ulrickson wanted people to know that the Wildlife Center of Southwest Florida is in need of funds, supplies and volunteers because it is being overwhelmed with injured animals. Wildlife Inc. of Bradenton Beach, Save Our Seabirds of Sarasota and the Peace River Wildlife Center of Punta Gorda have temporarily been put out of business due to storm damage. Injured animals that might normally go to those rescues are being sent to Venice.
That's a lot of work. Take, for example, the baby skunks. They have to be fed by hand.
Pam Defouw, the executive director of the Wildlife Center of Southwest Florida, said they have dealt with a high volume of injured animals.
"The workload definitely has increased," Defouw said. "We always have had an active presence in Lakewood Ranch (with volunteers such as Ulrickson and the Riehms), but we are servicing a lot more counties right now. They all have sustained a lot of damage."
Defouw said Hurricane Ian in 2022 did leave injured birds in its wake, but she has seen increased trauma in birds of prey following Helene and Milton.
"Gulls, terns, warblers, grosbeaks," she said. "Almost every one we have seen with major fractures. They were trying to fly away. This has been a lot more intense."
It's not just the birds.
"Tortoises have lost their burrows on the beach," she said. "They have been covered in mountains of sand."
She said she was encouraged that the four baby skunks delivered by Riehm would survive.
"That is great because they are a species of concern," she said of skunks. "Skunks are awesome and I love raising them. They are very important environmentally but their numbers are declining rapidly. It is so cute to watch them grow. They grow on you."
Like Riehm, Defouw said she has paid a price working with skunks.
"Yes, I have gotten sprayed when I was ready to release them," she said. "I did smell for days."
"We do as minimal of touch and contact as possible here," she said. "We put them in an environment where they feel secure."
She said it is imperative to help birds as quickly as possible.
"Birds are fishing all day," she said. "If they are out there with trauma a couple of days (it can be bad)."
She was asked how people can help the wildlife center.
"First and foremost, if you see a sick, injured or orphaned animal, call the center (484-9650, 484-9657). You see a lot of people posting that they will take care of an injured or orphaned animal. That never is a good idea. At this time, we have people here around the clock. Of course, we always need volunteers on site. If you can give, we have a wish list on our site (WildlifeSWFL.org).
Defouw said the center had been taking in 45 to 50 animals a day immediately following the storm, although that number has decreased to about 20 to 25 now. She said the center is beginning to release animals back to the wild, such as the four egrets they just turned loose or the Eastern cottontails they put back near where they picked them up.
"The ones with physical trauma will be with us longer," she said. "Generally, it depends where a fracture is. Bird bones heal quickly, probably in 4 to 5 weeks."
The wildlife center currently has nine employees on staff and approximately 25 volunteers working on site, and another 25 working on the road.
She said she can't thank volunteers like the Riehms and Ulrickson enough, and she noted that some of the volunteers continue to work despite have their own storm-related clean-up to accomplish.
