第2131期:Wildlife Workers Dress Up to Care for Orphaned Fox

In the eastern state of Virginia, employees of the Richmond Wildlife Center are doing their best to act like mother foxes. They started feeding and caring for a baby fox, called a kit, when the young animal became separated from its mother.

在弗吉尼亚州东部，里士满野生动物中心的员工正在尽力表现得像狐狸妈妈。 当一只小狐狸与母亲走散后，他们开始喂养和照顾这只小狐狸。

The Associated Press reported that a video recently appeared on the center’s page on the social media service Facebook. In the video, Executive Director Melissa Stanley is shown wearing a red fox mask and equipment like rubber gloves. She feeds the young fox in the video. The kit sits on top of a stuffed animal that looks like a fox. It is supposed to look like her mother, Stanley said.

美联社报道称，社交媒体服务 Facebook 上该中心的页面最近出现了一段视频。 在视频中，执行董事梅丽莎·斯坦利戴着红狐面具和橡胶手套等装备。 视频中她正在喂小狐狸。 该套件位于一个看起来像狐狸的毛绒动物的顶部。 斯坦利说，它应该看起来像她的母亲。

The Facebook post explained why employees were wearing the fox mask to feed the baby animal. It also said workers are avoiding making human sounds and are preventing the kit from seeing its human caregivers. The post said the orphan should not become too close to humans while it is being raised by them. The measures make it more likely that the kit could be returned to the wild.

Facebook 的帖子解释了为什么员工戴着狐狸面具来喂养小动物。 它还表示，工作人员正在避免发出人类的声音，并阻止该套件看到它的人类护理人员。 帖子称，孤儿在被人类抚养的过程中不应该与人类走得太近。 这些措施使得该套件更有可能回归野外。

Stanley said a man brought the kit to the center on February 29. She said he found the animal on the street while walking his dog in Richmond.

斯坦利说，2月29日，一名男子将这个工具箱带到了该中心。她说，他在里士满遛狗时在街上发现了这只动物。

Thinking she was a baby cat, the man turned her over to the Richmond Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Richmond SPCA). The Richmond SPCA is a nonprofit organization that takes in cats and dogs without owners and finds them homes.

该男子认为她是一只小猫，于是将她交给了里士满防止虐待动物协会（Richmond SPCA）。 里士满防止虐待动物协会是一个非营利组织，专门收留没有主人的猫和狗，并为它们找到家。

Wildlife center employees tried to find the kit’s mother and their home, or den. They found the den, but they were told by officials that the foxes had been trapped and removed. Stanley said she thinks the fox kit either fell out of a trap or fell off the back of the trapper’s truck.

野生动物中心的工作人员试图找到幼崽的母亲和它们的家或巢穴。 他们找到了巢穴，但官员告诉他们，狐狸已被困住并被移走。 斯坦利说，她认为这只狐狸要么从陷阱里掉下来，要么从捕猎者的卡车后面掉下来。

Employees at the wildlife center have been taking turns feeding the kit every two to four hours. They all wear the fox mask while feeding her.

野生动物中心的员工每两到四个小时轮流喂一次幼崽。 他们在给她喂食时都戴着狐狸面具。

In addition to the large stuffed animal meant to look like the kit’s mother, employees also put a smaller stuffed red fox in her space. She cuddles up to the smaller stuffed animal at the end of the video.

除了看起来像幼崽母亲的大型毛绒动物外，员工还在她的空间里放了一只较小的毛绒红狐狸。 在视频的最后，她拥抱着较小的毛绒动物。

Stanley said, “The goal is to release the animals back into the wild.” She added that the goal is not to just increase their chances of survival, but to raise them to recognize other animals of their kind. Another goal she said was that the animals should reproduce.

斯坦利说：“我们的目标是将这些动物放回野外。” 她补充说，我们的目标不仅仅是增加它们的生存机会，而是培养它们认识同类的其他动物。 她说的另一个目标是动物应该繁殖。

The center looked for other red fox kits of the same age and weight at other centers. Employees found three other kits in a center in northern Virginia.

该中心在其他中心寻找相同年龄和体重的其他红狐幼崽。 员工在弗吉尼亚州北部的一个中心发现了另外三个工具包。

The fox kit will be sent to the Animal Education and Rescue Organization in Virginia. That group plans to release the kits back into the wild together.

狐狸套件将被送往弗吉尼亚州的动物教育和救援组织。 该组织计划将这些幼崽一起放回野外。