Love blossoms at shelter during orphan season

The attraction was instant and now the recovering pair spend their days forehead to forehead cooing sweet nothings to each other.

They’re not the only sweethearts at the wildlife unit.

A tiny leveret from Cork is already breaking hearts, particularly as her arrival marks the beginning of orphan season there.

That’s the annual period between now and September, during which hundreds of orphaned wildlife from all over the country, find their way through the shelter’s gates in need of care and sanctuary.

Recalling the baby hare’s story, KAF wildlife manager, Dan Donoher says: “Mother hares usually separate their young at birth to make it harder for predators to kill them all. When this little one was found in Kinsale, she was alone cold and hungry and in immediate danger of being attacked.”

Now six days old, the tiny fluff-ball requires bottle feeding four times a day. Mr Donoher does this himself, taking her home in the evenings after each day’s work at the shelter, to ensure she’s being minded at all times.

As for why he’s doing all the leveret’s caring himself, he explains: “Swapping and changing between carers stresses tiny orphans and lessens their chance of surviving. So we provide one-to-one care for each one.”

Today, Mr Donoher with a handful of volunteers, is also looking after a host of other wildlife, including a baby otter cub that was found freezing and starving after a flood in Co Clare flushed her out of her home and separated her from her family.

They are also caring for a peregrine falcon, several buzzards, and numerous over-wintering hedgehogs that are too light to survive hibernation, as well as fawns, swans, garden birds, and barn owls.

Usually, the arrivals are fairly predictable, depending on the month of the year, but every now and again there’s a curveball, as Mr Donoher explains: “We cared for a coypu, a South American beaver-like rodent. He was rescued in Co Tipperary. We also minded a meerkat that turned up at someone’s house in Portlaoise, having likely escaped from a sewer.”

As for the lovebirds, they’re just the latest in a long line of animal bondings and pairings made at the KAF wildlife shelter.

“Two years ago in the midst of orphan season when every corner of the shelter was full, a rabbit and a baby pigeon arrived separately but on the same day, and both needed to be warmed in an incubator. As resources are scarce, we only had one incubator free that day.

"So we fashioned a fabric partition wall in the incubator and placed the pair into their own private spaces,” Mr Donoher said.

“Within hours, the two had knocked the wall and were snuggled up close together. That made our day as did the fact that the pair survived and went on to live independently of us. That’s our goal in the work we do here every day.”

Find out more about the foundation at animalfoundation.ie