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Wildlife rescue staff wears mask to feed baby fox
Adorable video from a wildlife rescue center in Richmond, Virginia, shows just how hard they work to make sure wildlife don't associate humans with food.
RICHMOND, Va. - Staff at a wildlife rescue center in Richmond, Virginia, went the extra mile to make sure their latest rescue – a baby fox – doesn’t associate humans with food.
Adorable video from the Richmond Wildlife Center shows a staff member wearing a fox mask and gloves to bottle-feed the fox kit, with the baby fox going wild over the bottle and making its own precious sounds as she laps it up.
"This is the youngest fox we have admitted, and given her eyes were sealed upon admission we felt that if her eyes were to open during the feeding process, we do not want the first visual impression she has to be a human," Melissa Stanley, founder and executive director of Richmond Wildlife Center, told FOX TV Stations.
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"While her vision at this age would be blurry and not fully developed, the silhouette is the image of an adult fox to her," Stanley continued. "We never want a wild animal associating food with a human."
The baby fox will be moved this week to another nonprofit wildlife rehab center two hours north so she can be integrated with four other fox kit rescues that are the same age.
The goal is to treat and prepare the foxes to return to the wild with the best chances of survival and reproduction. The nonprofit relies on private donations to fund the treatments.