Is it better to help injured animals or let nature take its course? This is a question everyone whom is an outdoor enthusiast must confront sooner or later. And it's a question that’s asked quite a lot.
You're hiking not far from home. The weather is ideal sunny, warm and cloudless. But now it's time to return home. You pause for a brief moment to catch your breath when you notice, lo and behold, a small animal beside the path. Perhaps it's a chipmunk or a cottontail or a possum. Whatever the species, it doesn't flee when you approach. Even a child's attention won't be able to scare it off. Is the animal hurt? Abandoned? On one hand, you know better than to disturb it. But on the other hand, a rescue seems in order.
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This is what happened to me this last summer when my parents and I were taking a mountain scenic drive in Colorado. We rounded a bend and there in the middle of the road were Bluebird chicks. I bet you can guess what I choose; yep I stopped the car and jumped out. This probably wasn’t the smartest choice but my instincts told me I needed to relocate the 3 fledglings to safer ground. In the background I heard the parents acknowledging our presence. Today, I smile knowing I probably saved the little ones at least from a car. Only a photograph of one of the chicks remains in the safety of my vacations scrapbook.
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So is it better to help injured animals or let nature take its course? A common dilemma, but also one that needn't causes us distress. The fact is that in almost all cases wild animals should remain wild. With baby cottontails, for example -- which make most children weak in the knees -- no amount of human attention can substitute for the care that a mother rabbit provides her young. All the comforts in the world will never match which is provided by. But if for some reason, despite the odds, the lost soul found its way into your home. With time it often loses those qualities that first made it an attractive pet. Instead of being cute and cuddly now it's clawed, temperamental and still wild.
Another reason to leave animals where you find them relates to territorial issues. Turtles and other reptiles taken from the wild for pets are almost always released at some point in the future when their owners tire of caring for them. The problem then is that unless these creatures are deposited in the same spot where they were originally found, they will likely suffer. And since people move or simply forget where their pets were first picked up, the animals often find themselves in unfamiliar surroundings, sometimes with insufficient food, inadequate shelter, even new predators.
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One example for me is yearly my family goes to Florida to visit relatives, well one of the things we love to do is catch the Anoles (lizard). One year during Christmas break we caught 11 Anoles both Floridian & Cuban Species and yes they did come home with the snowbirds back to Wisconsin. Well, I tried my best to take care of them all but at some point some got out and were never found until it was too late. As devastated as I was as a child it was a hard lesson to learn, that wild animals should stay wild.
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No doubt the most commonly rescued animal is the infant bird, fallen from a nest or in the course of an early flight. Surely a cat will find the bird sooner or later. Yet it's also true that the bird will have a better chance of reaching adulthood if left alone. I can’t begin to tell you just how many robin chicks I have places back into the nest after being spooked out but never once did I bring in a fledgling. Besides, DNR laws prohibit anyone but licensed officials from being in possession of nongame birds; a detail worth mentioning the next time the some kid wants to save a helpless chick.
The best choice is to leave the injured or solitude animal alone and to contact a local nature center say for example the DNR or your Local Audubon Society chapter. Also if there's a licensed wildlife rehabilitator in the area, any of these organizations will be able to reroute you in the proper direction.
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/wildlifecrossings/
http://www.defenders.org/
http://www.nwf.org
http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/
http://www.natureserve.org/
http://www.wi.nrcs.usda.gov/
http://www.thefeather.org/
http://www.kaytee.com/home/
http://www.nature.org/wherewework/no...tes/wisconsin/
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/wildlife/
http://www.wisconsinbirds.org/
