Fox Valley residents got a lesson on living with local wildlife – and what to do if an injured animal shows up in their yard – during a program over the weekend at Creek Bend Nature Center in St. Charles.

A sell-out crowd on Saturday listened to Stephanie Franczak of the Anderson Humane Wildlife Center in South Elgin talk about the animals that live among us.

Franczak serves as the center’s wildlife rehabilitation manager, and said she has “worked with over 300 species of animals.”

She told the crowd she arrived much later than she wanted to because of an animal issue that came up early Saturday morning before she could leave the Wildlife Center.

“We had a raccoon with a big wound on his shoulder,” she said. “A gentleman was able to trap it so we’re like – a lot of times when they come in it’s distemper, so we can’t really do much. This one didn’t, so we said ‘Let’s try to treat it.’”

Franczak said people should notify the Anderson Humane Wildlife Center if they encounter a wounded or abandoned animal.

“The thing to do is call us … even if it seems like an obvious situation,” she said. “You need to talk to a rehabilitator because every single animal – every single animal species – is 100% different. We’ll walk you through the appropriate steps and we also offer a program to pick up animals.”

She said “a huge percentage” of the animals they see are orphaned.

“We get over 3,500 animals every year and thousands of those are just orphaned, baby animals,” she said. “We do get sick and injured adults as well, but about 3,000 of our animals come in the six months from spring to fall – a lot of it is either orphaned babies or adults that are looking for a mate and where they are going to have babies.”

When it comes to birds that appear to be orphaned, she said the center can “try and re-nest the animal with the parents.”

“A lot of people don’t understand that with baby birds a lot of them spend a great deal of time on the ground,” she said. “The parents are around but we don’t want to kidnap those guys.”

Elaine Patanella of Elburn came to the program and said she encounters a number of animals “including coyotes, deer, raccoons, mice, squirrels.”

“I have not rescued any animals but I want to learn how to handle that better,” she said. “This is good education. Even if I don’t happen to rescue an animal, it’s still good to know.”

Elaine’s husband Justin Patanella said he didn’t grow up with animals, “but we did get a cottage and we now run into animals.”

“I’d like to have more skills to take care of rescues just in case,” he said.

Carol Juza of Elgin said she wanted to come to the class “because this is interesting.”

“When the kids were young they always brought (animals) to me and I was often at a loss as to what to do,” she said. “The kids are all grown up now but the grandkids might. The strangest thing that was brought to me was a snake. I did call a humane society once when I found a seagull that had been shot.”

John Breckenfelder of St. Charles enjoys attending classes at Creek Bend Nature Center and found his way to the one over the weekend.

“We usually try to catch as many classes as we can out here,” Breckenfelder explained as he arrived just before 10 a.m. “This class is the most recent and we signed up for this one. We love coming out here, and the naturalists are a fountain of knowledge.”

David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.