{"id":18248,"date":"2025-04-14T10:52:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T17:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.azgfd.com\/?p=18248"},"modified":"2025-04-14T10:52:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T17:52:09","slug":"azgfd-baby-wildlife-should-be-left-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azgfd.com\/2025\/04\/14\/azgfd-baby-wildlife-should-be-left-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"AZGFD: Baby wildlife should be left alone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>NEWS RELEASE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>April 14, 2025 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PHOENIX \u2014 With the arrival of warmer spring weather, the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) once again is advising the public to leave baby wildlife alone.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While it might be difficult to resist the urge to help seemingly abandoned animals, including newly hatched birds and baby rabbits, a parent is likely nearby and will return once humans have left the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sadly, once young animals have been removed from the wild, some species \u2014like elk calves and deer fawns \u2014 may have to be euthanized because they cannot be released back into their natural habitat. Zoos and other wildlife sanctuaries usually are not viable options, as they often don\u2019t have available space.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A licensed wildlife rehabilitator should be contacted, however, if an animal is encountered that clearly appears to be sick or injured, is unresponsive or lethargic, has been attacked by a cat or dog, or there is evidence that the parent animal is dead.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Young wildlife found in a yard or in the field is rarely abandoned. Typically, once the perceived predator (perhaps a dog, cat, or person) leaves the area, one or both parents will return and continue to care for its young.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Baby birds are the most common of young wildlife encountered by the public and removed from the wild. Some young birds, such as great horned owlets, often can be mistaken for full-sized adults because of their thick downy plumage. Leave them as found. As a reminder, the eggs of ground-nesting birds, like quail, also should be left undisturbed.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Young animals found are rarely abandoned. In almost all cases, one or both parents are nearby.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":13305,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main-site"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>AZGFD: Baby wildlife should be left alone - Arizona Game &amp; Fish Department<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azgfd.com\/2025\/04\/14\/azgfd-baby-wildlife-should-be-left-alone\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AZGFD: Baby wildlife should be left alone - Arizona Game &amp; Fish Department\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Young animals found are rarely abandoned. 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