The Predator-prey factor
For all intents and purposes we as humans are apex predators. When it comes to wildlife rehabilitation this is an important fact to remember because this means that almost all if not all wildlife perceive themselves to be our prey.
This predator-prey relationship has a large impact on the behaviour of wildlife in close proximity to us. Meaning that most often the wildlife will maintain a certain distance or will flee when we approach. When wildlife is sick or injured however they might not be able to flee, so the flight behaviour turns into fight behaviour.
It is important to know what ‘weapons’ a species of wildlife will deploy when they have to switch to do battle rather than flee. These weapons are not always the most obvious. Birds of prey for instant will roll on their backs to take full advantage of their most powerful weapon which is their talons. Many sick and injured wildlife will use their last bit of strength/energy to put up a good fight when we as humans approach, even if we are just trying to help.
it is nature that the weakest animals fall victim to predators, so another natural behaviour we see in sick and injured wildlife is that they will try to behave as normal as possible so that they may not stand out as weak and fall victim to us looming apex predators, even if we are just trying to help.
This is a factor often forgotten by people who don’t work with wildlife regularly. It is difficult to asses the level of discomfort or pain in an animal who is pretending everything is just fine so that the predator who in their mind is watching will overlook them and move on to other prey.
Wildlife feel pain as acutely as any other species of animal including humans, but they have adapted to manage to work through the pain as a preventative measure against getting predated.
This fake ‘I am feeling just fine’ behaviour can reroute valuable energy away from healing and this can cause death. It can also cause us (the providers of pain managements strategies) to undervalue the seriousness or level of pain related to an injury.
With the fake ‘I am feeling just fine’ behaviour masking the level of pain or illness one needs to contemplate how severe an injury or illness has to be before it becomes obvious in a wild animal as they will prevent showing pain at all cost.
I encounter the undervaluing of the severity or pain related with certain injuries on a daily basis in my professional life. Many times it is assumed by finders of sick/ injured wildlife that the injury is minor because the animal is eating and drinking or trying to escape. This causes some people to delay getting proper help for an animal. Proper help includes proper pain management.
To prevent myself from getting confused by the animal’s ‘I am feeling just fine’ behaviour I always equate the injuries I encounter in wildlife to myself and the pain level I might feel if it was me. I use this strategy to gauge the level of pain medication required to make an injured animal as comfortable as possible. Further more I reduce the number of people and duration of human interactions to an absolute minimum to give the animals the opportunity to rest and heal rather than to waste their valuable energy on ‘I am feeling just fine’ behaviour.
Next time you encounter an injured wild animal perhaps remember some of this and get the animal professional help right away. Most injuries require professional medical care and/or intervention. Too often people leave injured wildlife sitting in a cage in a house with some form of food and water without the necessary pain management and medical care with some hope that open fractures, cracked skulls or paralyzed limbs will magically heal. This proves that the wildlife predator-prey strategy is effective, but we should prevent falling for this behaviour by using tools at out disposal and alleviate pain and discomfort when we can with the help of treatment and pain management.
