HANDS OFF!

It's late spring and the woods are bustling with all sorts of wildlife acting on Mother Nature's cue to perpetuate their respective species. At other time of the year are humans more likely to encounter new borns in the wild. Some may be all alone and appear to need help, but in most cases they really don't.

Three words of advice to anyone who comes across one and ponders the idea of picking it up thinking they are doing it a favor: Don’t do it. Chances are it will do the animal more harm than good. It could be a death sentence for a white-tailed deer fawn, bluejay fledgling, baby fox or rabbit.

That's the word from wildlife biologists, game wardens and licensed wildlife rehabilitators all over the state.

"We always get flooded with calls this time of year from people who have found young animals,” said Sean Willis, a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department wildlife biologist based in Lufkin. “They bring them home thinking they are helping, but that's never a good idea unless the animal is obviously injured in some way or the mother has been hit by a car something. If you come across a fawn bedded down in your yard or pasture, it’s best to leave it alone and back away. The mother probably isn’t far and she’ll come back.”

Amy Sethman knows the drill all too well. Sethman lives in Burnet, a busy little town situated near the heart of the deer-rich Edwards Plateau. Several years ago, Sethman's ex-husband found a days-old fawn bedded down in a field. Thinking the fawn had been abandoned by its mother, he scooped it up brought it home.

The couple quickly found out caring for young deer isn’t as easy as it might seem. They also learned it is illegal to possess one without the proper permit.

Taking the young deer back where it was found wasn’t an option, so they started making phone calls to locate a licensed wildlife rehabilitator to care for it. They found one nearby, but she wasn’t happy when she learned how they came by the baby deer.

"She (the rehabilitator) was pretty mad about it when we told her what happened,” Sethman said. “She scolded us pretty good. It was a lesson learned. The fawn should have been left alone.”

Sethman was reminded of the lesson last week as she made the daily commute home from work. She was driving down a county road and noticed a doe crossing ahead of her. The doe had a new-born fawn in tow, its legs wobbling as it grasped for footing on the hard pavement.

As Sethman slowed her vehicle, the doe kept going but for some reason the fawn didn't.

"It laid down right in the middle of the road," she said.

Sethman was taking pictures of the fawn out the window when it got up and meandered behind her car. Concerned the fawn might get hit by a car, she got out and approached the deer hoping to coax it out of the roadway.

"I was worried about it getting under my car or something,” she said.“Then it started following me. Finally, it walked off to the side of the road and bedded down in the grass."

Sethman said the doe was standing in a field about 100 away and never appeared to lose sight of the fawn.

"She was still standing there, just staring, when I drove away," she said. "She knew exactly what was going on. I figured she'd come back, and she did."

TPWD white-tailed deer program leader Alan Cain said Sethman did things right on all accounts.

She didn't attempt to pick up the fawn. Plus, she made sure the young deer was out of harm’s way and drove away.

IT’S NATURE’S WAY

Fawns aren’t discovered bedded down in roadways very often. The animals are most often found in fields or in the woods, usually obscured by tall weeds or brush.

Suburban subdivisions located in areas with high deer densities are hotspots for backyard encounters with fawns that may appear to be abandoned, but really aren’t.

Cain says it is nature’s way for does to leave their fawns unattended between nursing sessions while they venture off to find their own nourishment.

“Does bed down their fawns in places they are believe are safe and then she'll go off and feed,” he said. “It may be a couple of hours or 3-4 hours, but she'll always come back to nurse them. They are good mothers. That’s just how they do things.”

Fawns will often curl up in the grass or beneath the shade of a bush. The animals are born scent-free with tannish coats and around 300 white spots to help them go undetected by predators. They are genetically programmed to remain motionless with their head low and ears flat while in the hiding mode.

It is during these away times that humans usually encounter fawns and pick them up.

Sadly, the well-meaning gesture often spoils any chance of the youngster being reunited with its mother.

It also places the now-orphaned fawn a situation where it is totally dependent on humans for survival.

Some get sick and die. Those that do live never benefit from the learned behaviors their mother would have taught them. This reduces the animal’s chance of survival in event it is released back into the wild at an older age.

“People need to understand these fawns aren't abandoned,” Cain said. “They are more likely to do harm to the fawn by picking it up and trying to take it to somebody. The chances of it surviving are a lot slimmer than if they just leave it where they found it.”

Plucking a perfectly healthy fawn out of the wild isn’t just unfair to the deer.

It places an unnecessary burden on those who are asked to take on the chore of raising it. Because it is illegal to possess fawns and other wild animals, licensed wildlife habilitators are usually called to intervene. It’s a job that demands long hours – with no financial rewards.

“What a lot of people don’t realize is that wildlife rehabilitators don’t get paid,” Willis said. “They do it out of the goodness of their hearts. All the expenses come straight out of their pockets.

“People would be doing themselves, the animal and the rehabilitator a favor if they would just stay away and leave them be.”

Much like other wildlife biologists, Willis fields his share of phone calls about orphaned wildlife in late spring.

It runs the gamut of everything from turtles to raccoons, opossums and fawns, but “we probably hear more about fledgling birds than anything else,” Willis said.

“People find them on the ground and think they have fallen out of a nest. Most of the time these birds aren’t injured.

“If the bird is feathered, it is probably just learning to fly, but hasn’t got it quite figured out yet.”

While some new borns found in the wild may need help, most of them don’t. Backing off and watching from afar is usually the best policy.

LICENSED WILDLIFE

REHABILITATORS

In some cases, wild animals do get into trouble on their home turf and need outside help to aid in their recovery.

TPWD maintain lists of licensed wildlife rehabilitators on their website, tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/rehab/list/. The rehabilitators are listed by county. The list currently includes 83 counties along with pertinent information including names, phone numbers and the species of wildlife the rehabilitation facility specializes in.