Biologist shares love of wildlife

[Donna]

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- For Beth Bidwell, it’s all about the wild creatures.

Bidwell gives up to 200 educational presentations each year featuring rehabilitated animals that were not able to be successfully released. On Sunday afternoon, she gave a presentation at the Saratoga Springs Public Library.

"Their prognosis was either to be doing this or be euthanized," Bidwell said. "Unfortunately, there are more injured animals than there are homes for them."

As a trained wildlife biologist, Bidwell is one of the few who give wildlife presentations, despite the network of wildlife rehabilitators, because what she does is very expensive. One cage for a hawk can run up to $1,000.

Bidwell receives support from International Paper Corp., Pearsall Adirondack Foundation and Stewart’s Shops. Her husband, Brad, assists in everything from trimming beaks and talons, to staging the presentation.

On Sunday before more than 80 children — most of them under 8 years old — and their parents, Bidwell showed off a snapping turtle, a black rat snake, a red-tailed hawk, a peregrine falcon and a barred owl during one of two hour-long sessions that were lively, humorous and involved much question and answering.

Bidwell uses creatures that she’s had for several years, so they are old hands at these public sessions, she said. What was hardest for the hawk and falcon was that this is the season for migration.

"Their bodies are telling them to go, but they can’t fly," she said.

The crowd listened to many facts and had the chance to view close-up each creature. A snapping turtle’s shell is too small for him to hide in, so when he’s scared, he swims to the bottom of the pond and hides behind a rock or plant, Bidwell said. On land, he gets "snap-happy" and can swallow a mouse in one bite.

When the children saw the non-venomous black rat snake, the children offered exclamations like "awesome" and "Oh, that is so cool."

As Bidwell walked among the crowd with the snake curled around her forearm, the crowd learned the snake could unhook its jaw and swallow prey larger than its head. One yawn and the joints fall back into place.

Death doesn’t come faster than a peregrine falcon diving out of the sky to snatch a pigeon, though. It can travel up to 270 mph, which makes it the fastest creature on earth, Bidwell said.

And the barred owl with its flat face, which captures sound waves, can hear a mouse’s heartbeat and its "delicious mouse feet" even in the midst of a rainstorm, according to Bidwell.