PILOT POINT — The latest animal seeking refuge at Sharkarosa Wildlife Ranch in Pilot Point is a female baby camel which, born about two weeks ago at the facility, was abandoned by her mother.

DRC/Al Key

Sara Stuart, manager of Sharkarosa Wildlife Ranch on Massey Road near Pilot Point, bottle-feeds their newest resident on Thursday. The facility has invited the public to e-mail suggestions through their Web site to help name the calf, which was rejected by its mother after being born about two weeks ago.

Now with the tender care of the ranch owner and manager, along with a bit of creativity from Dallas-Fort Worth area youngsters in a name contest, the young camel will join approximately 100 other animals with a full identity.

“This is a perfect example of what we’re about,” said Sara Stuart, ranch manager.

The young caramel-colored dromedary — a one-hump camel — follows Stuart around as she feeds the other animals and cleans the pens, at least until it’s time for her bottle-feeding every three hours.

Afterwards, it’s time for a little separation and some rest for the newborn in the corral.

“She’d follow me all day, but she needs to eat and sleep like other babies,” Stuart said.

Stuart entices the youngster to lie down on a bed of hay by doing so herself. Once the calf is asleep, she gets up and gets back to work.

Sharkarosa Wildlife Ranch is a nonprofit interactive educational wildlife facility, licensed and regulated by the U.S. Depart­ment of Agriculture as a breeder and exhibitor of exotic animals. The facility houses about 35 different species.

The 126-acre ranch is open to the public on Saturdays from March through November, and offers field trip opportunities for grade-schoolers and interactive presentations for private parties by appointment.

DRC/Al Key

Sharkarosa Wildlife Ranch owner Scott Edwards handles a capuchin monkey named Michelle on Thursday.

“We wanted a dual-purpose facility,” Stuart said. Her background in elementary education and passion for wildlife is a natural fit for her job. She and owner Scott Edwards, along with an assistant manager and several volunteers, emphasize educating the public while protecting and rehabilitating endangered animals.

The ranch is home to many species — eastern and western grey kangaroos, ring-tailed lemurs, sloths and Grevy’s zebras are just a few of the inhabitants.

“The best way is to get the animals in their hands,” Stuart said, adding that youngsters on field trips the week before were crazy about the newborn, having never touched a camel before.

Edwards believes animals bring out universal responses in people of all ages.

“If we put an animal in the hands of an 8-year-old or an 80-year-old, we get the same reaction,” he said. “We’re letting people see what they normally don’t get to see at zoos.”

Aside from the year-round field trips, Sharkarosa offers youth and volunteer programs, and community service projects for kids ages 17 and younger.

In 2007, with the help of a dozen volunteers over the course of three months, the ranch finished building Lemur Landing, an indoor-outdoor habitat for the small primates. Other future projects include a marsupial viewing landing to watch the kangaroos and wallabies, a nocturnal creature exhibit and a gift shop.

Sharkarosa also works closely with different zoos and sanctuaries, trading out retired and rehabilitated animals.

K’lynn Grant of Aubrey first brought her son’s school group out several years ago to the ranch and has since organized other outings. She particularly likes the hands-on educational benefits and question-and-answer session.

“Sharkarosa is a very fun place for kids where they actually get to hold, feed and take care of different animals, like lemurs,” Grant said.

Edwards and Stuart plan to raise the shunned calf and incorporate her into their presentations, which also feature a white-tailed deer with a disfigured jaw and a one-armed albino kangaroo.

DRC/Al Key

Evie, an albino eastern gray kangaroo, and Itchy, a western gray kangaroo, take a break in their custom-made pouches.

“Animals with disabilities are great for kids with disabilities,” Stuart said. “Kids can relate when they see something different.”

Also in the interactive programs are three joeys, which were weaned from their mother eight months after birth.

To get them accustomed to human interaction, Stuart bottle-feeds them and carries them around in soft fleece-lined denim bags on her shoulder for several hours each day.

As they get older, the joeys are placed in a special pen, each with their own pouch hanging on the wall, complete with a pacifier.

“They’re such pouch potatoes,” Stuart said as the joeys jumped head first into the bags.

“To get this close, everything we put in the hands of kids is bottle-raised,” said Stuart.

After a rain shower about two weeks ago, Stuart said she noticed the newborn camel in a pasture among a herd of 12 camels that were recently acquired from South Texas.

“All the camels were wet from the rain, so we couldn’t tell who the mother was,” she said.

After further investigation, Stuart discovered the mother delivering the placenta and tried to reunite the baby for nursing.

But, the mother rejected the calf, biting and even knocking the newborn to the ground.

Stuart said she and ranch owner Scott Edwards consulted a camel expert in Oklahoma who advised trying to milk the mother and deliver the necessary nutrients via bottle to the calf.

“They need the first milk,” she said.

But the mother, only living at the ranch for two weeks before delivering the calf, was not accustomed to human interaction.

“They’re like dogs,” Stuart said. “Camels have to trust you and get to know you.”

After successfully milking a pint from the mother, Stuart was able to bottle-feed the calf, which gladly guzzled it down.

For the first week, Stuart used cow colostrums in the feeding regimen and has since switched to goat’s milk. To keep up with the baby’s rigorous feeding schedule, Stuart brings the camel into a pen underneath her apartment on the property each night so she can hear the calf’s calls.

“Hi baby,” Stuart coos as she runs her hand over the camel’s silky, wool-covered hump, which causes the baby to hop about in delight.

“It’s the happy camel dance, intuitively known by camels worldwide,” she said.

Staff photographer Al Key contributed to this report.

RANDENA HULSTRAND can be reached at 940-566-6845. Her e-mail address is rhulstrand@dentonrc.com  .

Sharkarosa Wildlife Ranch in Pilot Point invites anyone wishing to submit a name for the camel that was recently born at the refuge to visit the ranches’ Web site, www.sharkarosa.com. Click the “contact us” link to e-mail suggestions, which should include “camel” in the subject line. Deadline for entries is Friday, April 25. The winning name will be announced on the Web site and the winner will receive four free tickets to visit the ranch on any Saturday that the facility is open through 2008. For more information, call 940-686-4600.