by Jack Spaulding
Outdoors WriterEach year, I see well-meaning individuals go to great lengths to save what they think is an orphaned wildlife baby. I’ve witnessed animal lovers drag in baby deer, opossums, raccoons, rabbits, groundhogs, birds and coyotes. Somehow, baby skunks seldom make the list for some odd reason.
Once well-meaning rescuers retrieve a young critter, they usually realize they haven’t a clue as to how to properly care for the wildlife orphan. Usually, they decide to call “someone” who might know what to do. I am often the “someone” called. For all the well-meaning animal lovers, I have a great piece of advice to pass on from the Indiana Division of Fish and Wildlife … leave the little rascals alone. Don’t gather them up, and don’t take them home.
Don’t think you can keep an orphan for a pet. No one can confine and keep wildlife without a permit. Removing wildlife from its environment is prohibited by state regulations unless you have proper handling permits.
The “assumed orphaned” animal’s mother is probably just out of sight, waiting for you to leave. Many baby birds leave the nest and the parents continue to feed them while the babies learn to fly. If you would happen to find a very young bird who has fallen out of a nest, put it back. The old wives’ tale about mother birds rejecting a returned baby because of human scent isn’t true.
Whitetail deer leave their fawns and return periodically to feed them throughout the day. Deer stay away from their babies in order not to attract predators to them. Unless you find the mother deer dead, she will come back to feed and claim her baby.
I have encountered fawns in the wild. They are curled up, holding stock still. If this happens to you, keep your distance, admire the animal and perhaps take a picture. Please, don’t take the baby deer home.
Baby rabbits will leave their nest and munch greenery in the general vicinity. If you hit a nest with the mower or accidentally uncover a nest, gather up the babies and put them back in the nest.
A few years ago, my riding mower blade guard hooked into a rabbit nest and flipped out three or four tiny bunnies. Carefully, I reassembled the nest and tucked the babies back into it. Momma rabbit returned, and the babies turned out fine.
Finding injured wildlife is another situation. Anytime you encounter wounded or injured wildlife, call the IDNR. Don’t try to move an animal or administer aid. Full grown critters can be very dangerous, even for the professionals.
My good friend and Indiana Conservation Officer Steve Delph of Decatur County was called out to retrieve a great horned owl from a lady’s porch. The owl seemed to be stunned and very lethargic. As Delph said, “I started to pick it up by its wings, and it suddenly whirled and struck my hand with its talons.”
Holding onto one wing with one hand, Delph draped his coat over the bird and had to get a set of needle nose pliers to dig the owl’s talons out of the back of his hand. By the next morning, his highly infected hand was the size of a small football.
The Division of Fish and Wildlife maintains a list of wildlife rehabilitators who have state or federal permits to care for wild animals. If you find an injured animal, call your local wildlife biologist or Division of Fish and Wildlife’s central office at 317-232-4080, and someone there will provide you with contact information for your local rehabilitator.
If it is after hours, a weekend or a holiday, my advice is to contact your local conservation officer through your sheriff’s department and request the officer take the injured wildlife or wildlife baby to an IDNR-approved animal rehabilitator.
till next time,
Jack Spaulding is a state outdoors writer and a consumer of RushShelby Energy from Milroy. Readers with questions or comments can write to him in care of Electric Consumer, P.O. Box 24517, Indianapolis, IN 46224; or e-mail jackspaulding@hughes.net.
Photo caption: Just because you don’t see the momma around a Bambi you may come across in the woods doesn’t mean she’s been killed or has abandoned the fawn. Leave the fawn alone; its mother may be hiding just out of your sight, waiting for you to leave.
Photo by John Foxx ©Jupiterimages