WATCH: Employees at US wildlife centre wear red fox masks to take care of abandoned kit

Richmond Wildlife Center employees in Virginia, US, have gone the extra mile to take care of an abandoned newborn red fox. They are feeding the female kit wearing a fox mask, which is a unique way of making sure that she doesn't get too attached to humans.

The centre's founder Melissa Stanley shared a video which showed her feeding milk to the baby fox while wearing the mask in an attempt to prevent imprinting.

Stanley said that the kit sits on top of a large stuffed animal fox, which is supposed to look like her mother. She was feeding the kit with the help of a syringe.

"It's important to make sure that the orphans that are raised in captivity do not become imprinted upon or habituated to humans," the centre said in a Facebook post Tuesday.

"To prevent that, we minimise human sounds, create visual barriers, reduce handling, reduce multiple transfers amongst different facilities, and wear masks for the species," the update said.

The wildlife centre has been following the necessary measures because the kit will likely be reintroduced into the wild someday.

As reported by the news agency The Associated Press, Stanley said in an interview Tuesday that the kit was admitted to the centre on February 29 after a man walking his dog found her in an alley in Richmond.

The man thought she was a kitten, hence, he turned her over to the Richmond Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She was less than 24 hours old and her umbilical stump was still attached.

When she was admitted, the staff at the wildlife centre tried to reunite the kit with herfamily and they tried to locate her mother and her den site.

They found the den site but were told by the grounds superintendent that the foxes had been trapped and removed.

The wildlife centre's founder Stanley said she suspects the fox kit either fell out of a trap or off the back of the trapper’s truck.

(With inputs from agencies)