The Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota provides
quality medical care and rehabilitation for all injured,
sick and orphaned wild animals, and shares its knowledge
with the people who care about them.

Even though it's been a wet, soggy spring, Mother Nature continues as usual. This means that there are baby animals of all different species out there. We have some quick tips for some of the more common issues people come across:

Baby rabbits in yard: Finding a bunny nest can be exciting or traumatic, depending on whether your dog found it or your kids. What we can tell you is those bunnies stand the very best chance being cared for by mom. Especially tiny, eyes closed bunnies. We have a neat and easy way to protect the nest from your dogs and neighborhood cats.

Finding a fawn in your yard also is pretty exciting, and can be incredibly stressful since it oftentimes appears that the fawns have been abandoned by mom. For approximately the first six weeks of the fawn's life, it'll stay behind while mom goes off to forage. She can travel a mile or two and that little tiny fawn simply cannot keep up with her. (they're also really bad at crossing road at this age) If you find a fawn curled up in your yard and it's alert, ears twitching, nose wet, looking healthy, please leave it where you found it. If you're gardening or mowing in the area the fawn will get up and move, give it time to do so. The mom and fawn should reunite just fine (the fawn will cry when it wants its mom, the mom will snort and stomp her hoof). If you have an injured fawn or a fawn and live in the metro, bring it to us. If you live outside the metro, call us so we can help you find a fawn specialist closer to you. (or call the DNR at 888-646-6367 and ask them for a fawn rehabber near your county) If you find a fawn stretched out on its side, that's likely a sign of distress. Approach the fawn. If it cannot lift its head, bundle it into a blanket, put it in a carrier and bring it to us (or if we're closed your closest eclinic). You do not need to call us first in this instance.

Another baby that might appear helpless but should be left alone is a fledgling bird. Not all birds go through a ground fledging stage but robins, cardinals and blue jays all live on the ground for 7-10 days before they can fly. We know this is incredibly stressful for you since you're worried about the bird being attacked by pretty much everything out there. This is, however, an incredibly important learning stage for the bird and it should be left on the ground to hop around. Parents may still be tending to it but you may never see the parents so our general rule of thumb is if the baby bird continues to look good - it's active, hopping around, taking brief naps - don't worry about it. These are all good signs. If, however, the bird is obviously injured, cannot balance, is continually sleeping or lethargic, or you've extracted it from a cat's mouth, then the bird should come to us. We have more info here on baby birds, including little naked nestlings.

A reminder that any injured animal can come straight to us, no need to call us first. If we're closed, you can see if your nearest eclinic would be willing to stabilize or triage the animal. Here are tips on how to safely keep an animal overnight until you can bring it to our center.