Indiana Conservation Officers are asking the public to please leave nesting wildlife young where they find them.

“Spring and summer are the time of the year when wildlife mothers often place their nesting young in areas that are also shared with people,” the Department of Natural Resources said in a statement released today. “When well-intended individuals come across a wildlife nest, the first inclination is that the mother has abandoned the nest and they young will need help.”

“Generally, this is not the case,” said Col. Mike Crider, director of the Division of Law Enforcement. “Wildlife mothers often leave their young for long periods of time. Deer, for example, will leave a fawn for up to two or three days. The wildlife mother will return to feed and care for their young.”

Consider these facts when you find young wildlife. Some mothers leave their nests for long periods and only return to feed their young. They are even less likely to return if there is a constant human presence that could be viewed as a possible predator. Human scent added to the nest site can increase the possibility of a predator’s finding the nest. And by removing the young from the nest, their odds of surviving decrease.

Rehabbing young wildlife requires knowledge and effort. Wildlife can be rehabbed only be individuals licensed by the DNR. Those licensed persons’ primary purpose is to address injured wildlife and they do so out of their own pockets. Inundating these people with wildlife young which did not need to be removed from their nest adds a significant burden to volunteer wildlife rehabilitators.

Posted 5/15/2008