Wild Animals

Wayne Buckley is an exterminator, but he doesn't do bugs. What Buckley does is trap and remove such wild animals as raccoons, opossums and skunks from homes in Philadelphia's western suburbs. New homes built in those areas have diminished the habitat of the animals, which are forced to seek refuge in attics, basements and chimneys.

Collingdale Borough is using an ounce of prevention against wild animals reported seen throughout the area and the potential diseases they can spread, borough Councilwoman Kathleen Munro says. The borough has hired Allen Strickler of Glen Mills as an on-call wildlife and domestic animal control officer in response to reported sightings of raccoons and opossums, Munro said at a council meeting Monday. "We're really trying to stay on top of it due to the epidemic of rabies in the area," Munro said after the meeting.

All you piranha, tarantula and boa constrictor lovers better prepare - it will cost $50 a year to keep your wild pet under a bill approved by a City Council committee yesterday. And you can't replace it when it dies. That goes for raptorial birds too. "It's a bird that is on a really great high. A tremendous high . . . You get a lot of raptorial birds up in the trees singing," explained Councilman Edward Schwartz, when asked about one of the more obscure items regulated in the animal control ordinance approved yesterday at his urging.

Before doing her chores outside, Mary Jane Williams sat at her kitchen table, wolfed down a sandwich and sipped hot chicken noodle soup. When Williams finished what she wanted of the soup, the remainder did not go to one of her four dogs, or to the cat who had been coveting it throughout the meal. She gave it to Phil, her pet chicken, who stood on the kitchen table and pecked at the bowl, drinking soup made from one of her species. Besides playing mother hen to a young chicken, Williams has been nursemaid to thousands of wild animals over the last 28 years.

ZANESVILLE, Ohio - Law enforcement officers shot and killed nearly 50 wild animals - including tigers, lions, bears, and wolves - released Tuesday evening by the owner of a private animal park who then committed suicide. School was canceled Wednesday and residents were urged to stay in their homes as sheriff's deputies with shoot-to-kill instructions tracked the animals around homes and through the woods about 55 miles east of Columbus. The 49 animals killed included 18 tigers, 17 lions, three mountain lions, six black bears, two grizzlies, a baboon, and a wolf.

If not for the acrid scent of skunk, Wayne Buckley's pickup truck would have resembled all the other tool-laden rigs piloted by tradesmen throughout the Main Line on a recent spring morning. Buckley, who makes a tidy living in the suburbs using his wits, wire cages and a dab of peanut butter, is the owner of American Wildlife Pest Control Services. In the last year alone, he has removed more than 2,000 wild animals forced by rapid land development in Philadelphia's western suburbs to seek refuge in attics, basements, chimneys and back yards throughout Montgomery, Chester and Delaware Counties.

Pennsylvania health officials are warning residents to avoid any wildlife exhibiting unusual behavior, particularly raccoons, because of a serious rabies problem in the state. The problem has also prompted the Pennsylvania Game Commission to ban the rehabilitation and release of raccoons, skunks, opossums and foxes on a statewide basis and to order people who routinely handle the animals to receive inoculations against the disease. The order, which took effect April 16, was sent to all animal- rehabilitation clinics and pest-control agencies in the state.

In a wooded patch just north of Downingtown, a new builder has been very busy. Trees have been cleared. A new dam has turned a tiny rivulet into a half- acre pond. And the first of what conservation officer Michael J. Doherty hopes will be many new homes has been completed. The dwelling - a mass of sticks, twigs, and mud - might not seem much as suburban development goes. But, according to the state Game Commission's Doherty, it represents a remarkable comeback. The rough-hewn structure is home to one of the most unlikely families to move into the suburbs in decades - beavers.

Wild animals, increasingly popular as pets, keep their lethal instincts even as they are leashed and housebroken. "A lot of an animal's behavior is governed by predatory instinct - and once you trigger the beginning of that behavior, it's hard to stop," said James Serpell, a professor of ethics and animal welfare at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. When a cat plays with a toy mouse, it bares its claws and follows predatory behavior, he said. "That might look playful, but if the cat is 600 pounds, you might be that toy mouse.

HARRISBURG - It wasn't exactly pork-barrel legislation. But at a time when lawmakers are wrestling over whether to privatize state liquor stores after 80 years of discussion, a bill to change the definition of wild animals in Pennsylvania zipped through the Senate in 21/2 weeks - like, some might say, a greased pig. The bill, sponsored by Senate President Joe Scarnati (R., Jefferson), would establish that captive feral swine - those used in hunting preserves - are not wild animals and therefore do not fall under the auspices of the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

HARRISBURG - It wasn't exactly pork-barrel legislation. But at a time when lawmakers are wrestling over whether to privatize state liquor stores after 80 years of discussion, a bill to change the definition of wild animals in Pennsylvania zipped through the Senate in 21/2 weeks - like, some might say, a greased pig. The bill, sponsored by Senate President Joe Scarnati (R., Jefferson), would establish that captive feral swine - those used in hunting preserves - are not wild animals and therefore do not fall under the auspices of the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazilian researchers are turning to cloning to help fight the perilous decline of several animal species. The scientists at Brazil's Embrapa agriculture research agency said this week they have spent two years building a gene library with hundreds of samples from eight native species, including the collared anteater, the bush dog, the black lion tamarin, the coati, and deer and bison varieties, as well as the jaguar and the maned wolf....

No floodlit corridors house the Pine Barrens Hall of Fame. Its spaces are instead the blueberry orchards, cranberry bogs, meadows, creeks, eagles' nests, and pin-oak forests that cloak 22 percent of New Jersey. But real people do occupy this virtual hall that the Pinelands Preservation Alliance created eight years ago to recognize the Pine Barrens' most important protectors. On Saturday the Southampton-based alliance added two more names to that honor roll that lives only on its website.

ILKEEK-LEMEDUNG'I, Kenya - Crouching at dawn in the savannah's tall grass, the lions tore through the flesh of eight goats. Dogs barked, women screamed, and men with the rank of warrior in this village of Maasai tribesman gathered their spears. Kenya Wildlife Service rangers responded to the attack, but arrived without a veterinarian and no way to tranquilize the eight lions and remove them from Ilkeek-Lemedung'I, a settlement of mud and stone homes not far from the edges of Nairobi National Park.

The thrilling adventure of OR-7 has captivated the West Coast and Northwest. It's a saga of courage and the enduring resilience of the wild. It's also a saga that will never happen in Pennsylvania or New Jersey. OR-7 is the gray wolf who left his pack in northwest Oregon and trekked more than 1,000 miles into Stanislaus County, Calif. The first gray wolf in the state since 1924, he has become so famous they had a contest to name him. The winning name, chosen by two separate kids: Journey.

A rabid raccoon has been found in the Barclay Farm section of Cherry Hill and health officials are issuing a warning. The Camden County Health Department is telling neighbors to make sure dogs, cats and ferrets are vaccinated. It is also urging residents to keep their animals under control and out of contact with wild animals. If a pet is bitten by a wild animal, resident should seek immediate veterinary assistance. The raccoon bit a resident in the heel and was captured in Cherry Hill on Wednesday, according to the health department.

Dozens of animals that were enjoying a taste of freedom for the first time in their lives were shot dead in central Ohio last week after their owner opened their cages and killed himself. Tigers, lions, bears, and primates - no doubt confused, frightened, and exhilarated - experienced only a brief whiff of autonomy before they were blown away by authorities bearing high-caliber weapons. What kind of body count will persuade lawmakers to finally outlaw exotic pets? Although what happened in Zanesville, Ohio, should be a wake-up call for legislators, it may not make much of a difference.

Want to buy a camel? How about a tiger? In Ohio, where a man this week freed his 56 wild animals before shooting himself, all you need is cash and a crate, and you can pick one up at any number of exotic animal auctions held there. And if you live in Ohio, you need no permit to keep your new pet. But don't think about bringing your purchase into Pennsylvania without a permit or taking it to New Jersey at all. In Pennsylvania, ownership of most large wild animals, such as bears, lions, and other big cats, requires license holders - of whom there are currently only 28 - to complete a rigorous application and undergo annual inspections by the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

ZANESVILLE, OHIO - Sheriff's deputies shot nearly 50 wild animals - including 18 rare Bengal tigers and 17 lions - in a big-game hunt across the Ohio countryside yesterday after the owner of an exotic-animal park threw their cages open and committed suicide in what appeared to be one last act of spite against his neighbors and police. As homeowners nervously hid indoors, officers armed with high-powered rifles and shoot-to-kill orders fanned out through fields and woods to hunt down 56 animals that had been turned loose from the 73-acre Muskingum County Animal Farm by owner Terry Thompson before he shot himself to death on Tuesday.