Many baby birds are found by people and taken in to be cared for. People believe the baby bird is rejected by its parents, lost, or can not get back into the nest.

The fatality rate of baby birds that are taken in by kind-hearted individuals is very very high.

Many people ask if a baby bird will be rejected if a person handles the baby and the bird parents smell the human. This is just an "old wives'" tale. Baby birds are NOT rejected by their parents if a person handles them. In fact, most birds have a very poor sense of smell.

DO NOT TRY TO RAISE INFANT OPOSSUMS IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING! THEY WILL DIE!!! IT IS ALSO ILLEGAL IN MANY STATES! FIND A WILDLIFE REHABILITATOR HERE!

Most opossum babies end up orphaned, because their mother was hit by a car (their only real defense is to play dead...) or killed by dogs.

So PLEASE, if you care and you happen to hit an opossum with your car - accidents happen - take a minute and make sure that there are no babies on the animal, because they usually survive a lot within momma's pouch. After all, they are America's only Marsupials.

Baby squirrels sometimes fall out of a nest that has been damaged in a storm or by an aggressive male squirrel.

The squirrel may not be an orphan at all, but may have just fallen from its nest. If one squirrel has fallen from a damaged nest, others may have fallen out as well.

It is recommended that you warm the baby squirrel in your hands or by holding it close to your body and then place it at the base of the tree. Given time, the mother will return and retrieve her baby.

If you found a Cottontail Rabbit in the Stephenville, TX (Erath County) area, please call me, Birgit, at 968 - 4626

This is the time of year when people find wild baby bunnies during the day and think they have been "abandoned", when in all likelihood, they have not. Before you try to save a wild baby bunny, know the facts.