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On the mend on Groundhog Day

Wildlife center treating head-injured rodent

Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Susan Whitney-Wilkerson⁄The Gazette This groundhog arrived at Second Chance Wildlife Center in Gaithersburg after being hit by a car in Chevy Chase. Click here to enlarge this photo Susan Whitney-Wilkerson⁄The Gazette Brittany Davis of the Second Chance Wildlife Center clinic holds an injured groundhog.

Now the groundhog rests at a Gaithersburg wildlife rehabilitation center, recovering slowly from the head wound he suffered, having to spend Groundhog Day tomorrow in his cage, feeding a ravenous hunger for veggies that was absent 10 weeks ago, when he arrived near death.

‘‘He could walk a couple of steps but then he’d fall over,” said Brittany Davis, clinic supervisor at Second Chance Wildlife Center, explaining how the wound had affected his center-of-gravity and left his head tilted precariously.

‘‘He had abrasions on his hind paws,” she added, ‘‘what we call road rash.”

The center, in a rural pocket at 7101 Barcellona Drive, takes in sick, maimed or lost beasts from birds to rodents to reptiles in a bid to reconcile the conflicts that have come as growing human populations have blurred the boundaries between urban and rural in Montgomery County.

Animals across the state have been injured in growing numbers due to closer interactions with human beings in recent years, with such tools as fishing nets, pesticides and automobiles pressing further into the wild, experts say.

The upshot is that rehabbers like Second Chance Wildlife Center, a nonprofit, sometimes handle heavy caseloads involving an array of wildlife with different problems and prognoses.

And while Punxsutawney Phil emerges from a tree stump in Pennsylvania tomorrow to issue his ritual verdict on the arrival of spring, other groundhogs, of which experts say there are many in the state, are feeling this reality up close everyday.

‘‘Most of the injuries are almost all vehicle-related,” said Ron Norris, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Natural Resources. ‘‘Occasionally you have a groundhog that has a den near a road. Generally they try to stay away from activity like that.”

Second Chance now has about 75 patients, including squirrels, bats, crows, seagulls, turtles, owls, hawks and frogs—most of which will remain nameless as long as they are slated to move back to the wild or to another center.

They have two groundhogs: the one they’re nursing and a quasi-pet named Pete, who lives on the property.

Also named are Blizzard, a red-tailed hawk, and Lenny, a brain-damaged squirrel.

Despite the crowd there now, ‘‘This is compete downtime,” office manager Elizabeth Polit said, standing recently in a room where caged birds cooed, chirped and flapped their wings as a duck wandered freely, oblivious to the commotion.

The majority of animals are brought in by citizens during the spring months. In the more than 10 years the center has been open, the greatest number of animals—5,478 — came in 2002, when a pneumonia epidemic spread through the squirrel population.

The center cared for about 4,500 animals last year. It has about a 60 percent release rate, Davis, the clinic supervisor, said.

The county Humane Society brought in the groundhog they’re caring for now, reporting that he had been hit by a car in Chevy Chase Nov. 16.

Rehabbers gave him anti-inflammatory medicine and put him in a cage were he would not be handled. A veterinarian is on call for emergencies, but mostly it’s a waiting game. ‘‘They can come in with the exact same injury, and some will die and some will survive,” Polit said.

As Groundhog Day approaches, it appears he’ll be among the lucky that survive close shaves with urbanization and return to their element.

As long as he keeps devouring his sweet potatoes and other choice greens, he should be released sometime this spring.

‘‘He eats well ... he sleeps well,” Polit said. ‘‘He acts pretty groundhoggish.”