Aaron Lefland

‘A Second Shot at Life’: Orphaned Foxes Released at Local Land Preserve

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A large crowd gathered Thursday evening to witness the release of two rehabilitated red foxes on a New Canaan Land Trust nature preserve off of Davenport Ridge Road. The young foxes, one male and one female, had been orphaned earlier this year, according to Dara Reid, director of Wildlife in Crisis, a Weston-based nonprofit organization that has been caring for the pair. “Both families were killed,” Reid said from the Colhoun Preserve, a 21-acre parcel acquired by the Land Trust in 1974. “One by cars and one by rodenticide—rat and mouse poison.”

Now about six months old, the foxes were in “very poor” condition when they were brought in, Reid said. “We had to give them fluids and a lot of rest when they first came to us but they have fully recovered and grown at this point,” she said. 

When the cages were opened in a clearing away from the road, one of the foxes was eager for freedom, hesitating only momentarily before bounding into the bushes.

Allyson Halm

Town Officials See Sharp Uptick in Turtle Sightings

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Town officials say they’re receiving an unprecedented number of reports regarding turtles out and about in recent weeks—a phenomenon that experts attribute to an unusually high water table. Officer Allyson Halm, head of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section, said in 15 years she’s never seen such high activity. Though Animal Control keeps no formal count of snapping and painted turtle sightings, Halm said they’ve come in recently from areas including Long Lots Road, Carter Street, Greenley Road and Chichester Road. A concerned resident on Huckleberry Hill Road on Wednesday stood out to protect a turtle as it crossed Valley Road, she said. Dara Reid of Wildlife In Crisis, a 30-year-old nonprofit organization that serves Fairfield County, said she’s seeing about double the number of snapping turtles hit by cars than usual, including one that’s about 50 years old.