ABILENE, Texas — **** WARNING: These images may be unsettling for some viewers.****
The Big Country Wildlife Rehabilitation Center had a busy morning Thursday rescuing a skunk family from their flooded den.
According to a social media post, the center was contacted after someone found a baby skunk outside of a flooded den with its mother's tail sticking out nearby.
When the center arrived, they pulled the mother out and noticed her paw was caught in a leg trap. After removing her from the trap, the rescuers noticed that the mother was likely going to starve to death and abandon her children, meaning she would have died under the concrete slab that had been their den.
All of the mother skunk's babies were successfully removed from under the slab.
The center says the babies are healthy, but the mother is in critical condition, as she had been stuck for some time. "She is emaciated and hemorrhaging most likely due to DIC (from stress)."
The center is asking the public to watch for displaced wildlife and flooded dens.
You can see the full post here: