St. Francis Wildlife Association - I Found A Wild Animal

At St. Francis Wildlife we like to speak on the phone with anybody that finds a wild animal before they bring it to us, because we want to make sure that the animal really needs help. Some natural behaviors of wild animals may seem "dangerous" to us and are easily mistaken for distress.

The times when an animal needs to be rescued: when the parent is known to be dead and the baby is too young to be on its own; the animal is weak, thin, cold or appears sick; the animal is injured in any way, including cat or dog bites; flies or insects are on or around it; the animal is in obvious danger, or in any life threatening situation.

Please read the information about specific animals in this page, or give us a call. After that, if you have determined that an animal is in need of rescue, get a cardboard box or plastic container, punch air holes on the top, and place an old t-shirt on the bottom. Please remember that your safety is first, never put yourself at risk. Wearing gloves place the animal in the box. Keep it quiet, warm, and dark. Don't stare at it or handle it. Wild animals can literally be scared to dead.

Babies always need an external source of heat. Warm up a plastic water bottle in the microwave, cover it, and place it in the box. Alternative heat sources are heating pads set on low, heated rice or bean bags, or hand warmers. Always protect the babies from being in direct contact with the heat source.

Don't give water or food to an injured or orphaned animal. You can cause more harm than good. Don't handle bats, raccoons, or foxes. During transport to our facility, do not turn your radio or air conditioning on.

I FOUND A WILD ANIMAL

Baby squirrel
Baby bird (PDF)
Bunny
Baby oppossum
Fawn
Bird of Prey
Orphan turtle?

Bird that collided with a window
Turtle crossing the street
Raccoon
Fox
Can I raise it myself?
Can I keep it as a pet?

CONTACT US

St. Francis Wildlife
Phone: 850 627-4151

Complete contact information

FIND A WILDLIFE REHABILITATOR

If you are not in North Florida, use the link below to find a wildlife rehabilitator near you

Find A Rehabilitator

You Found a Baby Squirrel - What to Do

Just because a baby squirrel fell out of the nest doesn't mean is orphan.

Pick up the baby and examine it. If it is cold, but appears otherwise healthy, first warm it up. Put the baby in an old t-shirt in a shoebox. Warm up a water bottle in the microwave, wrap it in another t-shirt and place it in the box. Never try to feed the baby or give it milk.

When the baby is warm, place the box at the base of the tree from which it fell down so mom can come to pick it up. Or even better, tide the box as high as possible to the tree, to avoid possible predators on the ground. Mom squirrel will not come back if there are pets or people near the babies. Nobody knows how to raise a baby squirrel better than a mother squirrel, please give her a chance to retrieve her babies.

If she did not return by dusk, take the babies inside for the night and keep them warm. You can place half the box over a heating pad set on low. Call St. Francis Wildlife to assess the situation and determine the next step. Sometimes, moms come back the next day.

If the baby is injured in any way, you rescued it from a pet's mouth, its mother is dead, or it's covered with insects, please bring it to St. Francis Wildlife.

You Found a Baby Bunny Rabbit - What to Do

A rabbit nest is only a small depression on the ground cover by fur and grass. Mother rabbits sometimes make their nest in yards. If you found a nest, it's better to leave the nest alone. You're not going to see the mother near the nest during the day, she stays away to avoid predators and feeds the bunnies only at night.

If you think the mother has been killed, place twigs or yarn lightly atop the nest making a cross. If the twigs or yarn have been disturbed by the next morning, the mother probably has been there during the night and fed them.

If the nest got disturb while mowing put the bunnies back in the nest (if they are not injured) and cover them up with their same nest material. It's an old wives tale that if the young are touched, the mother won't return.

Baby rabbits are independent at three weeks of age and about five inches long. At this age, they don't need our help.

Bunnies are extremely difficult to raise in captivity, and their chances to survive are much greater if they stay with their wise mother.

If the baby is injured in any way, you rescued it from a pet's mouth, its mother is dead, or it's covered with insects, please bring it to St. Francis Wildlife.

You Found a Oppossum - What to Do

Many opossums become orphaned after the mother is killed. Others become orphaned when they fall from her back or are somehow separated.

Infant opossums are carried in the mother's pouch. If an opossum has been hit by a car, check her pouch. Only females have pouches. If her babies are still alive, remove them, keep them warm, and bring them to St. Francis Wildlife. If they are still attached to the nipples, and you don't want to pull them out, you can bring mom and babies. If there are no babies, you can at least remove the body from the road to keep it from endangering the life of another animal that may utilize it as food.

If a baby opossum is found alone check the surrounding area. There may be more. Be very quiet and listen for "sneezing" sounds that the babies would make to call the mother. If the opossum is 7 inches long from nose to rump, not including the tail, it's on its own, and do not need your help.

If the baby is injured in any way, you rescued it from a pet's mouth, its mother is dead, or it's covered with insects, please bring it to St. Francis Wildlife.

You Found a Baby Bird - What to Do

Before you pick up an orphaned bird (and if it is not in immediate danger from pets or traffic), watch it from a distance for an hour or two to see if the mother will return.

Replace a fallen, featherless, baby bird to its nest. It is a myth that once you touch a baby bird the parents will not accept it. Birds do not have a well-developed sense of smell.

If you can't locate or reach the nest, use a small, plastic berry basket or margarine container. Cut drainage holes, add grass or pine straw, and use wire to attach to the shady side of the closest tree or bush. Gently place the baby bird in the new nest and, from a distance, check it periodically to make sure the parents return.

Some fledglings (teenage birds with feathers and short tails) may hop around on the ground in a covered area near their nest for several days while parents feed them. Fully feathered birds with short tails hopping around should be left there. Don't put them back in the nest; they will only jump out again and could injure themselves. The parents protect and feed them on the ground until they can fly.

If parents do not return within two hours or if the baby is injured, place it in a small, covered box with air holes punched in the lid. Keep it warm and quiet and do NOT attempt to give it food or water. Birds breathe through a hole in their tongues. Water placed in its mouth will be inhaled. Each species requires also requires specialized food and care. Take it to St. Francis Wildlife as soon as possible

Confining cats and dogs and educating children is the best way you can help. Wildlife's natural parents are always better at caring for them than human foster parents.

Watch a Video About Helping Baby Birds

Chimney Swifts
If chimney swifts have already moved in, push a styrofoam ice chest up into the flue to muffle their noisy calls as well as cushion any falls. And don't worry, they'll be on their way to South America long before you start chopping firewood.

What you can do to help baby birds
Before you cut down or prune trees and shrubs, check very carefully for active nests or cavity residents. Avoid cutting dead trees or snags. They provide food and shelter for a variety of wildlife.

Properly managed birdbaths and feeders are good, but planting native trees, bushes, and flowers supplies natural food, water, and cover for wildlife.

Many birds depend on insects in and around our backyards. Replace chemical insecticides and fertilizers with organic products to help protect our wildlife and water resources too.

You Found a Fawn - What to Do

Fawns spend many hours alone. The mother stays away so that predators are not attracted to the helpless baby. Fawns do not have a scent. If the fawn is not by the mother's dead body please leave it alone.

If you picked up a healthy fawn only because it was alone please return it to her mother. Take it back where you found it and let the mother care for it.

If the baby is injured in any way, you rescued it from a pet's mouth, its mother is dead, or it's covered with insects, please bring it to St. Francis Wildlife.

You Found a Bird of Prey - What to Do

Baby Bird of Prey

Adult injured birds of prey
You must wear heavy gloves when attempting to catch birds of prey. These birds use their powerful feet and sharp talons (claws) as weapons.

The safest way to capture one of these birds is to place a box or a laundry basket over it. Then, slide a flat item under it, tape both, and transport to Sr. Francis Wildlife.

Another way is to throw a blanket, jacket or any other handy lightweight item, large enough to cover the entire bird, over it. Approach the bird from the rear if possible. When close enough, carefully place the blanket over the bird. Cover the bird completely. Quickly restrain the bird under the covering. Grasp the tops of both legs, holding the feet away from you. Gently fold the bird's wings in a normal position against its body. Place the bird in a cardboard box into which you have cut ventilation holes, and bring to St. Francis Wildlife. Keep the injured bird warm in cold weather and out of direct sunlight when it's hot.

Eagles
If you find an eagle please call us at 850-627-4151, or call Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

You Found a Bird that collided with a window - What to Do

Reflections from windows can confuse birds. They may cause them to fly into the glass or repeatedly peck at what they see as their competition.

If you found a bird that hit a window, and appears to be stunned, gently place it in a shoe box with small holes punched in the lid for ventilation, and paper towels or an old t-shirt on the bottom for the bird to grasp. Put the box in a quiet, dark, warm area.

Many times, it just takes some time for the bird to recover on its own. Wait about an hour, or until you hear the bird fluttering, take the box outdoors, and open the lid. The bird should bolt for the nearest tree. If it doesn't, put the lid back, keep it for a few more hours, and try again. If the collision happens at sunset, keep the bird overnight.

If the bird doesn't fly away, is bleeding, a wing is hanging, or you see any other obvious injury, please bring it to St. Francis Wildlife.

To detract birds from "attacking" a window or glass door, you can cover it with newspaper until the bird looses interest and no longer shows aggressive behavior. Also, strips of colored plastic flapping in the wind, balloons with big eyes painted on them, falcon silhouettes, or spider web decals are effective remedies.

Print a falcon silhouette and attach it to a window or glass door to deter birds.

You Found a Turtle crossing the street - What to Do

Like everybody else, turtles need to cross the street sometimes. They are very slow and there's a good chance that they would be hit by a car. You could help them out though. Making sure you're not putting yourself at risk on the road, you can pick the turtle up and take it to the side of the road where it's going. You must take it to the side where the turtle is going, otherwise, it will try to cross the road again. They have to go where they have to go.

There's no reason to bring the turtle to St. Francis Wildlife if it's not injured. Leave it where you found it.

If injured please bring it to us. Again, do not risk your life or the life of others to help a turtle, or any other animal.

You Found an Orphan Turtle?

There's no such a thing as an orphan turtle. Female turtles lay their eggs and leave. The babies are on their own as soon as they hatched.

If you find a baby turtle please leave it alone. Do not take it home or to another area with the intention of protecting it. You can do more harm than good. Turtles carry specific turtle diseases from their area. If you take them somewhere else, you're taking new diseases to the new area as well, and that can be devastating for the turtles that live there.

If the baby is injured in any way please bring it to St. Francis Wildlife.

You Found a Raccoon - What to Do

Always avoid handling a raccoon. If you must handle it, never do it without heavy gloves. If you don't wear gloves you would be at risk of exposure to rabies, and the raccoon would have to be put to sleep to be tested.

Baby raccoon
Seeing a baby raccoon alone is cause for concern. Raccoon babies stick to their mother like Velcro. They don't venture out of the den in the daytime as baby skunks do. If a raccoon mother has been forced to move her young to a new den, she may be in the process of carrying the babies to this new location. If this is the case, she should return within the hour. Stay as far away as possible and watch for her.

Sometimes a baby is separated from its mother and siblings by falling or getting trapped somewhere that it couldn't get out of the previous night. The mother will check the area the following night to attempt rescue again.

Attempting to reunite the baby with its mother is the best first course of action unless the animal is injured. If a single baby raccoon, with eyes closed, is found, it must be kept warm.

Attempting to reunite a mother and baby raccoon is done by putting the baby in a container that it cannot climb out of, but the mother can easily tip over. Depending on the size of the baby, a box or plastic garbage can works well. Place the container as close as possible to where the baby was stuck or found, and concealed as well as possible from human view. Someone may think the baby is being �tossed out' and foil the reuniting. Place a towel that has the baby's scent on it outside the container to help the mother find the baby if it's not crying to draw her over. Mother raccoons almost always return to the separation site for one or more nights to look for their young.

If the baby is injured in any way please bring it to St. Francis Wildlife.

Adult raccoon
Raccoons are mostly nocturnal. However, it is quite common, especially in urban areas, for a healthy animal to venture out during the day if it is hungry or its den has been destroyed. Frequently, mother raccoons that are nursing babies will be forced to search for food night and day.

Another reason why these animals may come near your neighborhood is cat food. When people leave cat food outdoors they are attracting other animals, not only cats.

The old assumption that if they are seen out in the day time they are rabid, it's not true.

Distemper is a very common disease in raccoons. Distemper symptoms closely resemble rabies symptoms. Both are related to the nervous system and may include paralysis, self-mutilation, circling, and lack of fear of humans. Distemper cannot be transmitted to humans. Care should be taken when a raccoon looks sick or acts strangely, but overreaction against all raccoons is unwarranted.

If you see an injured or sick raccoon that can't walk/run away, give us a call, and if you're in our area, we will go to pick it up. If the animal is sick but walking/running it would be very difficult to catch and probably, it will not be there by the time we arrive.

Trapping usually doesn't work. If you set a humane trap, you would probably be catching all kind of animals except the one you want. Also, you would have to check the trap several times per day, to let the trapped animal go as soon as possible, before it dies of stress, cold, heat, etc.

Can I raise it myself?

There are many reasons why raising wildlife in your own is not a good idea:

•Wild animals carry diseases transmissible to people and their pets. External parasites, internal parasites, and many infectious diseases can be passed to humans from animals. Bubonic plague, rabies, hantavirus, salmonellosis, tularemia, visceral larva migrans, leptospirosis, to name a few, can all be found in wildlife populations.

•If you try to raise a raccoon or a fox, or any other rabies vector species, you would be exposing yourself and your family to rabies. Also, if the baby bites you, the animal will have to be put to sleep in order to be tested for rabies, even if it didn't show any symptoms of disease. Some wild animals can have rabies without showing symptoms for long periods of time.

•Orphaned wildlife need to be cared for by people who understand their special needs, in order to grow physically and mentally healthy. Wildlife rehabilitators have the training and knowledge necessary to do so. Also, in wildlife rehabilitation centers, the only persons allowed to handle rabies vector species are the ones that had their rabies vaccinations.

• Animals spend much of their early growing period leaning what is "normal" for them. They learn from their experience and associations in the wild. If they are raised in protective custody they do not learn the skills they need to survive, and may learn dangerous behaviors such as seeking food from humans, and "friendships" with domestic pets which are normally natural predators.

•If a baby is alone and is raised alone, it will grow up thinking is human. When it grows up it will become a nuisance to humans. Nuisance animals usually get killed. In wildlife rehabilitation centers the babies are raised with others of its kind and human contact is kept to a minimum.

•Also, it is illegal to harass, harm or possess wildlife, their nests or their eggs. Wildlife rehabilitation centers have state and federal permits.

Wildlife rehabilitators have been trying to raise the standards on how to properly care for wildlife for many years. Let them do their job.

Can I keep it as a pet?

There are many reasons why keeping a wild animal as a pet is not a good idea:

• Wild animals carry diseases transmissible to people and their pets. External parasites, internal parasites, and many infectious diseases can be passed to humans from animals. Bubonic plague, rabies, hantavirus, salmonellosis, tularemia, visceral larva migrans, leptospirosis, to name a few, can all be found in wildlife populations.

• Baby animals may seem tame now, but they will grow into aggressive and unpredictable adults. They will defend themselves with teeth and claws. A squirrel can bite a finger to the bone; a raccoon's bite can equal that of a much larger dog. If the raccoon bites you, the animal will have to be put to sleep in order to be tested for rabies, even if it didn't show any symptoms of disease. Some wild animals can have rabies without showing symptoms for long periods of time.

• When they grow up they will consider the area part of their territory. They can be territorial and dangerous to you and your kids, as well as very destructive of what you may consider to be your home.

• Once you or your kids lose interest on the grown up animal, you will let it go outdoors. The animal will not be able to survive on its own, and it will become a nuisance to other people. Nuisance animals usually get killed.

• If you domesticate a wild animal you're responsible for it and its well being its whole life. Not even zoos are capable of keeping up with that responsibility sometimes. Can you?

• Also, it is illegal to harass, harm or possess wildlife, their nests or their eggs

Wild animals were born to be wild. They were not born to be inside a house. There are plenty of dogs, cats, bunnies, and other domestic animals needing a home at the Tallahassee Leon Community Animal Service Center and other animal rescue centers.