RELOCATION PROTECTS LINK OF LIFE

By Lynn Larson

Wednesday, July 24, 1991

From bees to buffalo, Garon Fyffe appreciates the role of wildlife in the balance of nature.

 The Woodridge businessman founded and operates the oldest wildlife relocation service in Illinois, Animal Bees Chimneys Humane Wildlife Rescue and Relocation.

 But he's more than a trapper of nuisance wildlife, such as raccoons, opossums, squirrels, skunks, and zoo escapees.

 Fyffe says he's an advocate for animals and people.

 "Wildlife discovered America," he says, "but as the land was developed for human purposes with pockets of undeveloped land the animals are forced to forge new homes. They see chimneys as dead trees, stoops as caves and attics as dens," said Fyffe.

 They move into developed areas where food and water are available in gardens and garbage.

 With a team of biologists, naturalists and veterinarians as consultants, Fyffe ferrets out the nuisance animals from Chicago and its collar communities from offices in Woodridge and Arlington Heights.

 His 24-hour hotline answers "80 percent good Samaritan calls," which he explains are calls where he provides information or gives referrals without charging for his services.

 When a suburbanite wants an animal relocated, he analyzes "the particulars" and sets up live capture traps, which are checked several times a day. If one animal is caught, he sets traps again to capture the mate and families too.

 Before he releases animals 20 miles away from their capture site, he finds a hollow log that's suitable for a new home.

 A city boy, who grew up roaming Lincoln Park and its zoo, Fyffe loved nature and animals, which he studied at Northeastern Illinois University. He developed this interest into his business 15 years ago.

 An American Indian heritage also helps Fyffe abide with the land ethic of the American Indians.

 More than 200 other companies have followed his lead, but many have failed because "they looked at it as a way to raise money. I see (my business) as a way to help animals and people," said Fyffe.

 Before Kraft Foods built its offices in Glenview, Fyffe's company took four months to relocate wildlife from the property. He's relocated beehives from church walls and is developing a bat program to relocate bat colonies to ecologically-minded communities that appreciate their role in the balance of nature.

 The only mammal that flies, bats eat tons of insects a year, Fyffe said. The Chinese and Europeans put up bat houses and "now we get calls where enlightened people want them," Fyffe said.

 "Bats have received bad publicity. They are misunderstood because of myths and fears of people that want to harm them without valid cause."

 Although he's never been bitten by any animal because "I'm extremely careful," Fyffe has been stung by hornets and bees which he feels are an important link in the key of life.

 "If pollinators were extinct today, it would be the worst ecological disaster on the face of the earth.

 "If man became extinct today, the earth would heal itself."