From Blue Ridge Wildlife Center

We admit very few invertebrate patients each year, but we will always provide care for these species to the best of our ability!

This Blue Dasher came to the center after being found down on a sidewalk, unable to fly due to a sticky material over the wings and face that was preventing flight. Fortunately we were able to anesthetize this patient and carefully remove the foreign material. After a few hours to recover from the procedure and a quick flight test, this dragonfly was cleared for release and flew off beautifully!

Blue Dashers are a common native dragonfly species and they are voracious predators who can consume hundreds of flying insects per day. Like other dragonfly species, they provide important mosquito (and by extension mosquito-borne disease) control that benefits wildlife, domestic animals, and us humans.

While we see many traumatizing and disturbing cases each day that highlight the severe damage humans cause to our natural environment, we are also constantly reminded of the good in our own species and love to see that some humans care enough to ensure that even the tiniest creatures receive the care they deserve.

    • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
      12·
      3 days ago

      Lol, I get it. In a simplistic way, I ask myself that all the time. We just spent months raising some orphaned squirrels and I released 4 at my house. The next morning, I spot 2 new resident foxes under my tree and 0 squirrels. I spent a lot of time on those squirrels, potentially to be a 5 minute meal for a some fox kits. I’m releasing some more animals today, and it makes me ask how this is going to go. There are a few things I think of though.

      Over 90% of rehabbed animals are there because of things we humans are responsible for as a species. Hitting animals with cars or leaving out obstructions they smack into, our pets trying to murder them, destruction of environments, etc. Even if they get released from our care and they die, let it at least be in a way that nature intended, and not as a result of our carelessness.

      One day, I went to open the clinic and saw we had a bumble bee in our care. It was set up in one of our mouse terrariums and had nice soft bedding of tissues, a cottonball of water, and an orange slice. It was a drone that had hours/days to live, and it was short one wing.

      I asked where it came from and why we were looking after a bee. A five year old boy had found it in the yard and took it to his parents, all upset. They took the time to look us up, call us, have the kid tell us about his hurt bee, and they drove it all the way to our clinic. We knew the bee would die. We treated them as seriously and gave the animal as much care as we would anyone else.

      The bee died. But a lot of people put love and effort into showing compassion and empathy for a bee. Being a witness to that whole situation has stuck with me for a year now. I see a lot of people talking about what the world needs right now, and a lot of it gets scary. But to see so many people come together to rally around a dying bee really got to me in a way I never would have expected. It showed me the amount of love that we have the potential to give. From a 5 year old possibly learning about life, death, and understanding suffering in others for the first time, to parents that cared so much about their child’s feelings, to a full animal hospital staff that cared no less for that bee than a bald eagle, there was so much of the best of humanity that every time I think of seeing that bee being comforted, I get a tear in my eye.

      Sometimes small actions can speak louder than larger ones, and I know that bee has forever changed the way I am going to see a lot of things.