Spring is for the birds & the bees and BABIES!

Ahhhhh Spring is in the air, can you smell it?! Can you hear it? Can you see it?

With the warm weather on its way, lots of wildlife will begin having their adorable babies. I wanted to write a list of important things to keep in mind if you are out enjoying nature and happen to see some baby wildlife!

In this day and age of smart phones there is a good chance you can GOOGLE what to do in any situation where you come across a baby animal. Your other best option is to call a local shelter or wildlife refuge.

Please, please, please leave rehabilitation up to the pros! Wild animals belong in the wild, and professionals can ensure the best quality of care for orphaned animals so they can be released back where they belong.

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Bambi

Not many people haven't seen the disney classic Bambi and even if they haven't its hard to resist the beautiful big eyes of a fawn

Deer mommas have a tough job raising, feeding and protecting their little one while feeding themselves and escaping from potential predators. To make their jobs possible, deer will leave their young in tall piles of grass alone for many hours of the day, only returning to them a few times a day to nurse them. This not only allows the female to obtain the nutrients she needs to nurse but prevents drawing any predators attention to her baby.

Often times people will come across one of these little 'abandon' fawns and mistakenly 'rescue' them. Wildlife refuges and rehabilitation centres are often overwhelmed by a large number of "orphaned" deer brought in by well-intentioned people (embarrassing right?).

So what should you do if you do come across a sweet little baby? Leave the area! As long as it is not obviously injured, stay away from the entire area as the mother can be weary to return if you are nearby. Do not touch it, unlike birds, mother deer can smell your scent on their babies. If you did touch it, find a towel to wipe your scent off. If the fawn is injured do not attempt to capture or rescue it yourself, call your local wildlife refuge or shelter (duh).

Thumper

Baby buns are a lot like deer in a sense but they are much uhm smaller. Good news is that if you do touch a baby rabbit it will not be rejected like a fawn would.

Mother rabbits will leave their little balls of fluff (babes) in a nest made up of grass. A lot of times people will find these bunnies and assume they've been abandoned because there is no mother in site. Please resist the urge to touch baby bunnies and don't assume they are abandoned.

Read mooore about what to do if you find abandon buns here.

Feathery Friends

A big misconception about birds is that they will reject their young if its been touched by a human! This myth has likely stopped many well-intentioned people from picking up chicks and putting them back into their nests.

Momma and poppa birds put a ton of their daily energy into those babies AND in general birds have poorly developed olfactory systems (in laymen terms, they can't smell well so there it is unlikely they smell human on their chick).

There are a few reasons why a chick may fall out of its nest, some species will actually push their siblings out of nest so they don't have to compete with them for food (talk about a sibling rivalry), young chicks are often uncoordinated and have poor sight so they may accidentally fall or get blown out by a big gust of wind, predators can also knock nests over.

So what to do if you you find a little chick that has fallen out of its nest? First things first would be to determine if it has been injured in any way. If it has not been injured you should return it to its nest, unless of course you can't reach its nest (some people suggest putting the chick in a make-shift nest made out of a small basket with a towel or grass, off the ground near the nest) or if the chick is fully feathered. For more detailed instructions check out this awesome flow chart.

Little Bear

Uhm don't panic but like holy crap if you come across one of these fluffy buddies there is a very good chance that their big momma bear is nearby. The term momma bear exists for a reason (Have you seen The Revenant?).

If you come across cubs and there is no mother around or you find her dead call your local animal control and leave the area immediately just in case mamma bear comes back.

For real though, I don't really know what you should do if you encounter a mamma bear. I'll google it sometime and let you know. Sorry friends, the most I've ever encountered are little Black Bears digging through garbage cans so I can tell based on personal experience a group of 4-5 slightly intoxicated teenagers screaming "BEAR" is enough to scare dumpster diving black bears away (true story).

Squirrely

Coming soon...

Read my experience raising orphaned squirrels for the wildlife refuge I volunteered for.

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#Advice