Spring Brings Baby Animals to Unexpected Spots in East Lansing

East Lansing’s urban wildlife has been causing some adorable mischief around town as animal moms have been nesting in less than ideal spots.

The lower elementary school children at Glencairn Elementary school weren’t able to use their slide for a week in May due to a litter of baby bunnies that were discovered in a shallow burrow on the playground.

Principal Lorraine Ware, a self-proclaimed animal lover, erected a fence around that section of the playground and posted a sign which says “Our Glencairn Bunnies” and “Quiet Viewing Area,” to keep the kits safe from curious children while they grew. “Officer Whelan stopped by and added the caution tape,” she explained, referring to East Lansing’s School Resource Officer Steven Whelan.

Students pressed around the bunny enclosure each morning before the bell rang for school, all hoping to catch a glimpse of the babies, whose ears were just barely visible peeking up out of the wood chips. The mother bunny kept her distance from the crowd during the day but there was evidence that she had been in to check on the babies during the night. “The nest was much more open yesterday, you can see that she’s come and covered them up,” said Ware told the students one morning before school started.

At first it was hard to determine how many bunnies were in the burrow, but as they grew it became apparent that there were at least five. Glencairn students left suggestions for bunny names on a poster in the school hallway (above), but the bunnies left their nest before the students were able to decide what their names should be.

Across town, a mother duck built her nest in downtown EL in a clump of ornamental grass on a strip of landscaping across from the Grove Street Parking garage. Local business owner Meg Croft of Woven Art noticed the nest and contacted the department of public works to help keep the nest safe while eggs were incubating. Dave Pope and Greg McCafferty from DPW put up a temporary fence to shield the nest from the sidewalk and conceal the nest from passersby.

According to Ronald Lacasse, the Infrastructure Manager for the City of East Lansing, DPW has a few duck-related calls each spring, usually about rescuing ducklings who have fallen into drains. “This generally happens a couple of times each spring. For some reason when one goes in the rest always seem to follow,” Lacasse told ELi via email.

According to Croft, the Grove Street eggs hatched on the opening morning of the East Lansing Art Festival, probably the busiest day of the spring for comings and goings downtown. LuAnn Morgan Williams snapped this photo of the proud Mama and her brood.

Croft said an unidentified city worker stopped by the shop to reassure the staff that the nine ducklings and their mama made it safely across Grand River Avenue before the start of the Festival the next day.

You can see a picture of DPW employee Dave Pope and Officer Morehead of the ELPD with some more ducklings rescued from a drain basin on the East Lansing Police Department’s Facebook page.