Dead, dying, sick, and injured wildlife and other sad stuff: WILDLIFE HANDLING/REPORTING GUIDANCE – PLEASE READ

PLEASE SHARE WITH ALL STAFF, INCLUDING VOLUNTEERS, INTERNS, AND THOSE WITHOUT ACCESS TO EMAIL

Hello Dinosaur NM staff and welcome to all our new and returning staff!   Emily here with the 1st of two annual PSAs on wildlife in Dinosaur National Monument. I introduced this topic to most of you at the All Employee Meeting yesterday…

Summer is almost here.  Birds are singing. Flowers and trees are blooming. Baby animals are frolicking about. Dramatic (windy! cold! sleety! rainy!) skies move overhead. 

But it isn’t always baby prairie dogs and rainbows here at Dinosaur – sometimes things die. Sometimes they happen to die or fall ill in our developed areas where staff and visitors come upon them.

This is a great time to review guidance on what to do if you encounter or get a report about a dead or sick/injured animal in developed and high visitation areas. Attached are two documents on how to handle and when to report dead and sick/injured animals. Please become acquainted with how to handle these events and distribute copies widely.

I’d also like to scare everyone senseless and remind people how many wildlife diseases are out there . The good news is that transmission of every single wildlife disease we know or assume to be present at some level here at Dinosaur is preventable with some commonsense precautions. Please take the time to orient to the wildlife disease and prevention resources available on the Safety Sharepoint site for hantavirus, plague, rabies, tularemia, rabbit hemorrhagic disease, avian influenza, and more! 

I’ve also attached the comprehensive guide to zoonotic and vectorborne disease prevention specific to our area (the intermountain region). PRO TIP: Reviewing this with your team would make an excellent monthly safety topic discussion (wink wink nudge nudge).