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Current Issue featured From the Magazine Wildlife

Tech Test: What do you know about wildlife?

Put your wildlife knowledge to the test.

(PHOTO: Sonsedska/iStock / Getty Images Plus)
(PHOTO: Sonsedska/iStock / Getty Images Plus)

Edited by Mark VanderWerp, BCE, manager of education and training, Rose Pest Solutions, Madison Heights, Mich.

North American raccoon 
(Procyon lotor). (PHOTO: GENE WHITE)
North American raccoon
(Procyon lotor). (PHOTO: GENE WHITE)

Why rabies requires medical attention

Rabies is a viral disease that is deadly if people don’t receive medical care before symptoms appear. Rabies spreads primarily through bites or scratches from an infected animal. In the United States, animals most frequently found with rabies are bats, skunks, raccoons and foxes. If you may have been exposed to rabies, you should urgently seek medical attention. After a rabies exposure, the rabies virus must travel to the brain before it can cause symptoms. The time between exposure and the appearance of symptoms is the incubation period, which may last for weeks to months. Once clinical signs of rabies appear, the disease is nearly always fatal.

SOURCE: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Answers to September Tech Test

1. b, 2. False, 3. c, 4. True, 5. d, 6. True, 7. b, 8. False, 9. a, 10. True