When you think of zoos and aquariums as places where injured wild animals are rehabilitated, sometimes taught basic survival tactics, before being released back into the wild, you’re usually thinking of animals like dolphins or maybe monkeys. But what about baby raccoons who have been separated from their mothers?
That’s when Mississippi’s Woodside Wildlife Rescue swoops in, and its workers become drill sergeants as they move squadrons of baby raccoons through obstacle courses, teaching them the basics that their mother never got the chance to.
As the Associated Press reported, Woodside Wildlife Rescue was founded in 2009 by former merchant mariner Paula Woodside. The center raises dozens of orphaned kits (baby raccoons) on a 20-acre property, running the trash pandas through a tactical wilderness curriculum, prepping them for the obstacle courses they’ll experience in nature
These Orphaned Raccoons Have to Pass ‘Boot Camp’ Before They Can Go Home
These human caretakers even bark orders like a drill sergeant, though the directions have a particularly raccoon-style cadence, as the rehabilitators use a series of shrill trilling sounds to simulate danger and send the kits scrambling up trees. A short whistle lets them know that it’s all clear. They’ll hide worms in the dirt to teach them about digging.
They’ll break open pinecones to show off the seeds, teaching them how to find food. They’ll guide the kits on shallow pool fishing trips and live quail hunts. To prepare them for hurricane season, the staff paddles kayaks across the local pond, encouraging the little guys to swim back and forth.
A final exam to make sure the kits are ready for the real world sounds a little cruel, but it’s for the best: they purposely trap them in the kinds of cages they might encounter in the wild to instill a healthy fear of humans and traps. Those that pass graduate after roughly six months, and the center plays Edward Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance Marches,” calls out each kit’s name, and gets a local reverend to bless them before releasing them into the wild to be the mischievous little bandits they were born to be.
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