Baby wildlife

In the month of May, the baby wildlife come out to play.

In the month of June, the Game and Fish Department fields a lot of calls about abandon wildlife, however, that might not be the situation.

"We always tell people is if you see a baby animal, leave it alone. You know, if you think it might be abandoned, mom is probably real close, either hiding or looking for food for it and will come back shortly," said Pat Isakson, NDGF conservation biologist.

Isakson says he gets a lot of questions about well-intentioned people touching or moving baby animals each year.

"It's a wives' tale that if you touch a baby animal, that mom won't care for it. But we just want people to leave them alone if they come in contact with them. There are some situations where if you have to move an animal, say it's in your driveway or gets into your garage, what we recommend to people is have as little contact with it as you can and move it into a shrub, a tree, something to give it protection and to keep it out of sight," Isakson said.

There are a lot of baby geese, pheasants, turkeys, ducklings, songbirds, and the list goes on, however Isakson has one tip if you come across baby big game animals, such as deer fawns and young moose.

"If you see a big game animal with their young give them lots of distance. You don't want to stress mom out. And this time of year, they're really going to be protective of those animals and it could be a dangerous situation," Isakson said.

Everyone would agree baby animals are cute and snuggly, but there is one thing to remember.

"It is illegal to take a wild animal into your possession. And another thing to consider is if you take that animal into your possession and then decide later on you want to release it, the chances of its surviving are pretty minimal," Isakson said.

With young animals moving from their home ranges, more deer are on the move, so drivers are reminded to watch for deer on the road.