Wildlife // Wildlife Emergencies
Wildlife Rescue: What to Do When You Find an Injured or Orphaned Wild Animal
Every year, PETA receives numerous requests from all over the country from caring people who have found injured or orphaned wildlife and are looking for a place to take them for care. We are glad to know that there are people willing to help these animals because there is certainly a need for it!
Unfortunately, well-meaning people with the best of intentions often “rescue” young animals, when in fact, these baby birds and mammals are perfectly fine and their parents are probably foraging for food nearby. In most cases, young wild animals should be left alone. However, when in doubt, please use the following recommendations as a guide on how you can best determine whether a young animal needs help, and if so, what to do.
Be prepared! Keep the following items in your vehicle at all times so you’ll be ready to respond should you encounter an animal in distress:
- Carrier (medium-sized), cardboard or plastic
- Towel or blanket (with no strings or loops)
- Net
- Leash
- Broom (you can use to gently coax a wild animal into a carrier or away from a dangerous area)
- Wet and dry cat food
- Directions to local animal control bureaus, 24-hour emergency veterinary hospitals, and wildlife rehabilitators (to find your local wildlife rehabilitators, please click here)
If immediate action is deemed necessary, the following are some steps that you can take to help.
Nestling Songbirds
- It is not true that parent birds will reject or kill their babies because a human has touched them. Fallen nestlings—babies with no feathers, a little fuzz, or pinfeathers—can be returned to the nest if they aren’t injured or very weak. You may need to drop a small towel gently over them and lift them carefully to the nest. If you don’t have a towel, rub your hands in some dirt, then pick the babies up and put them in the nest.
- Parents of nestlings will continue to feed their young if the nest has been disturbed or moved as long as it is left undisturbed and safe and near its original site. Mother birds usually feed their babies every five minutes or so, and it is extremely rare for a mother bird to be away from the nest for more than 15 minutes. Watch quietly from a distance for several hours; take nestlings only if it is clear that they have been abandoned or are injured or in immediate danger from cats or other animals.
- If you either can’t see or can’t reach the original nest, you can make a surrogate home for nestlings out of a small basket, kitchen strainer or small plastic container with holes punched in the bottom. Line it with shredded tissue paper—don’t use cotton, grass, hay, straw (they can cause respiratory problems), or old birds’ nests (which can contain parasites). Hang it in a sheltered place close to the original location—no farther than 5 feet, if possible. Get out of sight and watch to make sure the parents return.
- If nestlings cannot be put in such a substitute nest or returned to their original nest or if their parents don’t return, they need a soft, snug, cup-shaped container, such as a margarine tub. Warm chilled babies in your hands, then put them in the tissue-nest container, and put that on a heating pad (low setting) or under a light. Do not let nestlings get too hot! If they stretch out and pant, reduce the heat immediately. Put the nest in a larger, well-ventilated box (make small holes in it if necessary) and place the box in a warm, quiet, safe place.
- Handle the birds only when necessary. What they need most is warmth, quiet, darkness, and nutrition. Checking on them too often (which is a great temptation!) subjects them to avoidable stress. Never allow children to play with them!
- Fledglings—young birds who are mostly feathered and learning to fly—can be moved a short distance to a tree or dense shrub to keep them safe from traffic and cats. Fledglings’ parents are usually close by so never attempt to rescue fledglings unless they are in immediate danger; their parents are the best ones to teach them to survive in the wild.
- If fledglings must be rescued, they need safe, roomy cages with sticks from the yard as perches, fastened securely. A cardboard box with sticks fastened through it and a screen cover will do in a pinch. Fledglings don’t usually need extra warmth, but they do need quiet.
- Fledglings will probably be much more fearful of you at first than nestlings, so as with nestlings, fledglings should be handled as little as possible. Do not give liquid to fledglings—it can do more harm than good.
- Cottontail rabbits make their nests in small depressions in the grass. The nests are lined with fur from the mother and loosely covered with grass. They are frequently disturbed by people when they are mowing their grass or raking. In addition, dogs and cats find these nests and often kill or injure the babies.
- If a nest is discovered or disturbed, place the baby rabbits back in the nest and leave them there unless they are injured or if you are certain that the mother has been killed. Many people assume a mother is dead simply because they have not seen the mother return to the nest in quite some time, but this is completely normal. Female cottontails usually only come to feed their young twice a day, at dawn and dusk, because this decreases the chance of alerting predators to the nest’s location. If you are not sure if the mother is coming back to feed them, try placing a string over the nest. If the string has not moved by the following morning, the mother has not returned. Also, if the babies are cool and appear very hungry, place them in a warm, dark box with a towel, and place the box in a quiet place and contact a wildlife rehabilitator immediately.
- Young cottontail rabbits should only be rescued as a last resort. Baby rabbits have a high death rate when hand-raised, due in great part to the stress of handling by humans. People are NOT doing the babies any favors by attempting to raise them themselves. It usually only ends in sadness and frustration. Again, they need special diets, care, and antibiotics if they are to have any chance at survival. Also, when baby rabbits are about 5 inches long, they are totally on their own and away from their mother. These rabbits do not need to be taken in unless they are injured. A good rule of thumb is, if you can’t catch a rabbit without a chase, then he or she does NOT need to be rescued!
- Young squirrels are often found after a nest has been blown down from a tree following a storm. The best thing you can do in order to reunite the young with their mother is to place the baby squirrels in a box and set the box at the base of the tree. The mother will usually retrieve the young and transport them to a safer location but only if she feels safe. Please resist the temptation to check on the baby squirrels frequently, and be sure to keep dogs, cats, and children away. It may be necessary to keep the young squirrels indoors overnight and then try reuniting them with their mother again the next day. Either way, it is always best to call your local wildlife rehabilitator for instructions and advice.
All birds and their nests, with the exception of pigeons, starlings, grackles, and English house sparrows, are protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). If you or anyone else is caught attempting to care for a federally protected bird without a rehabilitation permit, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service could charge you with MBTA violations. Fines for violating the MBTA are substantial, so please contact a wildlife rehabilitation center and transport the animals for care immediately.
For more detailed instructions on what to do if you find a baby mammal or baby bird, please click on following link to the National Wildlife Rehabilitation Council’s Web site at http://www.nwrawildlife.org/page.asp?ID=22.
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