All For A Garden

With the warming season of spring and early summer, comes the increased possibility of encountering young animals from baby birds to lone fawns to baby squirrels in our backyards and neighborhoods.

What should you do–and not do–if you find a baby animal in your yard or neighborhood?

Does it Really Need Help?

For most of us, our first instinct when we encounter a baby wild animal, is to try to rescue it, especially if it’s alone. Before you do anything, make sure it actually needs help. In most cases, it is totally normal for wildlife babies to be on their own. “Rescuing” an animal that doesn’t need rescuing actually decreases its chance of survival.  Usually, the best thing to do is to let nature take its course.

The exception is if an animal is injured as the direct result of human activity, such as getting attacked by a pet, striking a window, hit by a car, or falling from a nest during tree work, or if you’ve witnessed its parent being killed and know for sure that it has been orphaned. In those instances, the ethical thing to do is try to help. Calling a local wildlife rehabilitator should be your first step to provide help for the animal.

Find a Wildlife Rehabilitator 

Do not try to take care of a wild animal yourself. Caring for wildlife is a round-the-clock job  requiring special training to do properly. In fact, you must have a state-issued license to legally keep and care for wild animals.  Well-meaning attempts by untrained people, unfortunately, may result in the death of the animal.

Baby Birds

Baby birds are frequently found on the ground in spring. If the baby bird is featherless or covered in fluffy down, it is a “nestling” and should be returned to the nest if possible. Listen and look for the parents. This can help you find the nest and where you can safely place the nestling.  (Don’t be alarmed if the parents raise a fuss and dive-bomb you; they are just looking after their young!) Touching a nestling will not make the parents reject it.

If the baby bird is fully feathered, it’s called a “fledgling” and it is normal for it to be out of the nest. Fledglings spend several days on the ground hiding in the vegetation until they can fully fly. Their parents continue to feed and protect them.  While this is a dangerous time for young birds, your intervention is not necessary. In fact, by taking fledglings out of the wild you decrease their chances of survival.

When to help: If you see a fledgling in the street or otherwise in harm’s way, try to move it into dense vegetation close to where you discovered it so the parents can look after it.

Squirrels

Squirrels start their families as early as late winter and can have several litters over the spring and summer. They give birth in a leafy nest built in the branches or inside tree cavities. In my own yard, I discovered three baby squirrels that I thought maybe dead or dying, on the ground, under our maple tree. I decided to wait to see what the mother would do.  It was not long after I “left” that the mother came and picked up each one bringing it back into the nest.  

When to help: If you find a baby squirrel on the ground (and If the mother is nowhere to be seen) with its eyes closed or that can’t move, it’s too young to be away from the mother and may be injured, dehydrated or malnourished. Contact a wildlife service immediately and do not try to feed or raise it yourself. Baby squirrels require special care and must be fed a specific formula every few hours around the clock.

“Bambi and Thumper”

If you see a fawn lying alone in your yard, as we did; or baby rabbits in a nest in your lawn, they are usually not orphaned. Mother deer and rabbits leave their young alone for most of the day to avoid attracting predators. Fawns and bunnies have fur which camouflages them and they instinctively remain still and quiet. In our case, the baby fawn was so good at hiding, we often thought it had left the yard.

When to Help: Just observe from a distance. Keep domestic animals and people away and chances are quite likely the mother will be back shortly. As with fledgling birds, “rescuing” baby deer and rabbits by removing them from the wild is unnecessary and reduces their chances of survival.

Ducks and Geese

Baby ducks and geese hatch with their eyes open and they are able to walk, swim and feed themselves immediately, under the watchful eye of their parents who protect them from predators. They leave the nest shortly after hatching and shouldn’t be returned to it.

When to help: If you encounter a lone baby, contact a wildlife rehabilitation service.

Reptiles

Baby snakes, turtles and lizards hatch from their eggs (or are born in the case of some snakes) completely equipped to care for themselves. Leave them right where they are. The best way to help them is to make sure you have plenty of native plants and other sources of cover, such as a brush or rock pile, in your yard to give them places to hide from predators.

When to help: If you find a nest of eggs in your yard (mulch and compost piles are favorite places for reptiles to lay eggs), leave them where they are or contact a wildlife service to relocate them. Embryos attach to the inside of the eggshell shortly after laying and moving the eggs could result in the death of the embryo if not done properly.

Rescuing an Animal

Rescuing any wild animal in need is best left to trained professionals. Moving wildlife is a last resort and should only be attempted if the animal is in clear and imminent danger.

Never Try to Make Wildlife into Pets

While it is very tempting to keep wild animals as pets, (especially ones you’ve helped), they are meant to live wild and free. In fact, there are laws to protect many species from being taken out of the wild by people.

Instead, why not create a wildlife-friendly garden or landscapes in your own yard? In our NJ back yard we followed the National Wildlife Federation: Garden for Wildlife program. Go to “www.nwf.org/garden-for-wildlife” for more on this fun educational garden program.