Wildways: Humane Wildlife Choices

05/29/2026

05/25/2026

Good info on fawns from our friends in North Carolina. In Indiana, you can text Wildcat Creek wildlife Center at 765-491-2351.

I saw my first fawn on the way to the Center today. So tiny. When I arrived, there were already several calls waiting for me regarding possibly orphaned and injured fawns. Before I left work on Friday, we were discussing the fact that the fawn calls were likely to start this weekend ... and we were right.

Please do what you can to help Whitetail moms help their babies survive. When driving, please slow down, especially at dusk and dawn. If you see adult deer crossing the road, be aware that there may be a fawn or two following behind. Keep your dogs on your property and under control at all times, especially during these next few weeks, when fawns are most vulnerable. If you come across a fawn on it's own, please don't touch or move it, and never remove a fawn from the wild unless it is obviously injured or distressed (note that "distressed" includes fly, ant or maggot infestations); mothers will stash their babies while they're out feeding, so just because a fawn is temporarily alone doesn't mean he or she has been abandoned.

If you find an injured fawn or other injured wildlife, please call our Center at 828-898-2568. We can help direct you to your nearest fawn rehabber.

SOS! Right now, we have over 200 animals in our care, and the calls keep coming in. We need your help to help our patients. You can help in the following ways:

DONATE: https://www.givecampus.com/campaigns/32800/donations/new?designation=maywildliferehabilitationcenter

PURCHASE NEEDED ITEMS ON OUR WISHLIST:
https://a.co/e4HTzT9

VOLUNTEER: Call the Center to sign up! 828-898-2568

05/16/2026

Let's talk about fledglings! Fledglings are juvenile birds who are too large to be in the nest and developmentally are learning to fly. For many species, such as our robins, this means that the young bird comes out of the nest and spends several more days on the ground. During this time they are fed by both parents and have the opportunity to build their strength to eventually achieve flight.

This is also a time of 'tough love'. Mom and dad are no longer returning every 10-15 minutes with food. Instead they are remaining away for longer periods of time, encouraging their offspring to search for food on its own and gain some independence.

It is during this time that young fledglings are at risk of predation by domestic pets and natural predators BUT that is not a reason fledglings need to come into care at a rehabilitation center. Rehabilitators cannot take in fledglings just because outdoor cats exist in the neighborhood. This stage is a right of passage. It is a time when these birds are learning to fly and be on their own. While dangers do persist, we must let them learn under the watchful eye of their parents.

Now, just because we don't see parents doesn't mean we need to bring fledglings into care. Remember, mom and dad are staying away at this point on purpose. They are there and their absence is actually keeping their baby safe. Should you find an injured fledgling, however, or one who has been attacked by a domestic pet, please do find assistance from a state and federally permitted rehabilitator.

04/19/2026

The Fox Under Your Deck Is Not a Threat. She Is Out of Options.
A gaunt, shivering mother curls tightly into the cold, dusty earth beneath your wooden decking, wrapping her thin body around her crying, blind kits.

We see a fox living beneath our floorboards and immediately call pest control in a panic, assuming a dangerous predator has invaded our property to stalk our families.

In reality, the native Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes, Status: Secure) is simply a refugee of our own making. Right now in March, as females give birth to their spring litters, the catastrophic loss of natural burrowing habitats forces them into our shrinking suburban corridors. With woodlands bulldozed and lethal rodenticides poisoning their food supply, an exhausted mother chooses your deck because it is the very last safe, dry space left in a broken landscape.

These misunderstood meso-predators are vital, interconnected regulators of the urban food web. By controlling exploding populations of crop-destroying and tick-carrying rodents, they actively shield our neighbourhoods from disease.

You can offer her grace. Do not call lethal removal services. Secure your rubbish, eliminate toxic rat poisons, and contact a local wildlife rehabilitator if she appears injured.

She didn't choose your garden to threaten you. She chose it because her habitat is gone, and she is desperately trying to keep her family alive for one more night.

04/02/2026

Turtle Isn't Suicidal
An Eastern Box Turtle crawls slowly down the dead center of a steaming asphalt road, its ancient shell baking in the warm March sun.

You might look at this solitary reptile and assume it is wandering aimlessly or hopelessly lost on the pavement.

In reality, it is trapped by its own evolutionary instincts. Right now, across the southeastern United States ("Vulnerable" conservation status), these turtles are emerging from months of winter brumation under the mud. Hardwired to navigate by following the natural, linear edges of streams and fallen logs, they tragically mistake our paved roads for clear, natural pathways. In our heavily fragmented woodlands, this edge-following behavior results in devastating road mortality.

We cannot afford to lose them. Capable of living over a century, these terrestrial turtles are crucial forest gardeners. By eating early-spring fruits and mushrooms, they disperse seeds miles away, regenerating native understory plants like the Mayapple, which in turn feed countless insects and woodland birds.

If you see a turtle on the road this spring, safely pull over and gently move it across the pavement in the exact direction it was already heading.

A shell carries centuries of memory; a simple act of human kindness keeps that ancient journey alive.

04/01/2026

03/31/2026

The Empty Bowl: A Rabbit Mother's Desperate Search
At twilight, a lone Eastern Cottontail doe returns to the low-slung, cryptic nursery she'd scraped in the backyard grass under a thorny rose bush. Frantically, she sniffed the empty, flattened-grass depression, confusing memory with reality.

Common wisdom dismisses rabbits as hyper-productive, mindless breeders, with little regard for memory or connection, as if they just start over without consequence.

But this logic ignores the delicate architecture of their maternal instincts. Unlike some species that constant care, a cottontail visits her hidden kits for only one to two minutes per night to nurse and clean them, minimizing predator exposure. Her entire maternal bond is hardwired by precise scent recognition. This cryptic nest is her home compass.

Right now in March, Eastern Cottontail does across the U.S. are digging these crucial, shallow scrapes in suburban yards and fields (Secure conservation status, widely distributed across eastern N.A.) to raise their first spring litters. A single disturbance—by heavy pruning, lawn work, or a curious off-leash dog—can erase the mother's only chemical map. The mom, though distressed, cannot reconnect with her lost, scentless young. The kits quietly starve. This isn’t a lone tragedy; it’s a failure for the entire ecosystem. These kits are the primary protein for native predators like Red Foxes and Red-tailed Hawks, who are also preparing to raise their young. Every empty nest is a ripple of starvation.

Before you begin spring yard work, check ground cover for soft-furred scrapes. If you find one, mark it with a small flag and keep dogs leashed. A memory lost to a missing scent.

03/15/2026

Turtles are already on the move Indiana, so please be on the lookout!

03/10/2026

Look at this little bean. A tiny little neonate baby raccoon. Just about a week old.

She’s the first of many who will come through our doors in the next few months.

In 2025 alone, we took in over 400 raccoons. That’s… a lot. Too many, honestly. And the hard truth is that many of them didn’t need to be here at all.

The number one reason baby raccoons come into rehab is because someone relocates the mother from their attic, shed, or chimney… and only afterwards realizes there were babies left behind.

Please, please don’t do this.

If you find raccoons in your home, contact a wildlife rehabilitator first. There are ways we can help keep families together, or safely remove them without orphaning the babies. It saves us a tremendous amount of work, and more importantly, it gives these little gremlins the best possible start in life.

Raccoons also require one of the longest rehab commitments we have. While rabbits are often ready to go in 3–4 weeks, raccoons stay with us for about six months. In the wild they stay with their mothers for nearly a year. We do our best to mimic that bond with siblings and social groups, but nothing truly replaces mom.

This little nugget is just one… who will soon be many.

Wish her, and us, a little luck this season. 🦝

03/03/2026

Dear parents,

That turtle your child just spotted crossing the yard isn’t a free pet. It’s a wild animal that has likely survived for decades exactly where it is.

When your child asks, “Can we keep it?” you have a powerful opportunity. Instead of kidnapping an animal from its home, show them that loving wildlife means leaving it right where it belongs.

Watch it quietly together. Point out the patterns on its shell and how that helps it blend into the leaves. Talk about how that turtle might be older than you. Imagine how many summers and winters it has already survived. Ask your child where they think it finds water and what it eats.

Explain that it has a mental "map" of its home range. That taking it away can be terrifying, disorienting, and even deadly. Teach them that this turtle is a special part of a much bigger ecosystem.

That moment of choosing respect over possession teaches empathy and responsibility in a way no tank ever could.