DNR says leave baby wild animals in wild, despite them looking abandoned

People often try and “rescue” fawns,
who are perfectly safe, yet alone

Hard to resist the impulse to want to rescue a baby wild animal. But you should.

That’s the message the Wisconsin DNR is trying to spread about young wild animals that are typically found on their own this time of year.

Wisconsin DNR biologist Ron Lichtie says it seems to be mostly deer that people find alone in the forest and want to bring home because they think they’ve been abandoned. Generally, they haven’t.

Mom is just out “getting groceries.”

“It’s actually very common that the mother leaves the fawn alone, because she has smells and the fawns don’t,” said Lichtie. “So she leaves them, goes off and feeds, then comes back and feeds the fawns later on.”

Stumbling upon a lonely fawn or other baby animal in the woods, you may be misinterpreting just how much danger those animals are in. Even if you find them alone, you should trust the process of animals taking care of themselves, Lichtie said.

“Just because mom is not there at a certain time, it does not mean she is not taking care of them,” Lichtie said. “The best thing to do is respect her, respect the babies and leave them plenty of room to get to the water source that they need to.

“She doesn’t spend half the time with the fawn, and the other half, she’s feeding or trying to get nourishment to try and feed the baby.”

The DNR is working to bring awareness the destructive impacts of those with well intentions, who interfere with some of the young wildlife that’s typically found in the woods this time of year.