New Canaan Animal Control Officer Maryann Kleinschmitt this week on Weed Street came across a mangy baby fox (which she doesn’t expect to live long)—a grim reminder of the widely varied wildlife here in town.
What follows is a list of the most recent wildlife-related animal calls fielded by police and the department’s animal control unit, as well as an updated map plotting coyote sightings in New Canaan in 2014 (the most recent one occurred June 27, on Pocconock Trail):
- 7:59 p.m. on June 26: Police put down a small, sick fox that a homeowner on Willowbrook Lane spotted staggering around a small pond in the backyard. Arriving at the house, police walked within 15 feet of the fox and it didn’t appear sick or disturbed, and was unable to move away from them.
- 3:50 and 5:50 p.m. on June 27: Police responded to calls on South Avenue and Main Street about birds trapped in garages. In both cases, police opened up the garage doors and the birds flew out on their own.
- 11:25 p.m. on June 28: Police responded to a report of a bat in a bedroom on Hoyt Farm Road. In such cases, it’s important to capture and euthanize the bat in order to send it to a state lab for testing, since rabies can be passed along from sick animals indirectly such as through saliva.
Here’s the updated coyote map: