Ya kin look, but no touch

[Lee Borgersen]

You can look, but don’t touch young wildlife of spring.

By Travis Grimler article Apr 27, 2019  

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PEQUOT LAKES, Minn. — Anyone who has watched “Bambi” is aware of the abundance of newborn animals that arrive with spring. Whether rural or urban, residents will start seeing an influx of young wildlife now that it's spring.

“The most common things in the Brainerd wildlife area are small mammals ranging from squirrels and mice ... but wherever you find prey, there will be larger mammals like fox and coyotes that frequent the Brainerd lakes area,” said Nathan Thom, assistant area wildlife manager with the Department of Natural Resources in Brainerd. “Woodchucks, skunks, raccoon, and moving up from there, a lot of deer.”

Some animals will avoid areas with significant human traffic, but others seem instead to thrive on developed properties. For example, just outside the DNR office building in Brainerd is a fox den, burrowed underneath the sidewalk. Thom theorized the mother fox chose that location in part because the walkway is heated in the winter. Animals will tend to shelter where they feel the likelihood of survival is greater.

“We have reports of fawns being laid down next to people's decks and things like that basically because they perceive that as a safe spot from predators, which is very cool,” Thom said.
 
On a similar note, a litter of nine fox kits was spotted living in a den on the Echo Journal property this spring. Thom suggested the mother, who had a healthy, successful winter leading to her birthing nine kits, found resources and shelter on the newspaper’s property that convinced her the location was a good fit.
 
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“It's a full-time job, raising especially nine kits, so you have to have a lot of food,” Thom said. “It depends on how much prey is in the area.”
Just as prey animals seek shelter in residential areas where they might avoid predation, some savvy predators might find prey animals more abundant and easier targets. As a result, even some larger predators may leave the safety of the woods to visit town.
“Timberwolves have been spotted throughout most of Baxter and almost downtown Brainerd, which is interesting,” Thom said. “I don't think they make it a home, but they figure there's a nice food source here, whether it be cottontail rabbits or woodchuck or whatever. There are plenty of them running around.”

People are perhaps more familiar with errant bears in residential areas.
“One thing we deal with this time of year especially are bears in bird feeders and bears in garbage,” Thom said. “From now to mid or late June you will see bears causing problems for people. They just went through a winter. They haven't eaten for months. They are hungry and thirsty. The first thing they do is to go after those bird feeders and garbage cans. I recommend you take them down at least part of June or put them away at night. Garbage cans — don't put them out more than a few hours before the garbage man comes. Don't leave them a day or two early by the curb or you might come home to a mess.”

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When at all possible, Thom said homeowners should consider observing animals that choose to take shelter near them, and not disrupt them by harassing them or trying to touch them. With this advice comes the annual reminder to people about finding fawns bedded down alone on their properties.

“We're soon going to see fawns throughout the area,” Thom said. “The best thing to do is leave them alone. Everyone thinks their mother left them and is not coming back because the mother must have gotten hit by a car.  Well, they can leave them for well over a day and come back to take care of the fawn. The best thing to do is leave that fawn right where they left it and witness one of the cool things that takes place here every spring. Other baby animals like fox, it's important you don't disturb them very much. They'll put up with a disturbance, but just leave them alone. Don't try to pet or play with them.”

Red foxes like this, caught on a trail camera, are somewhat tolerant of humans if they don't get too close. They may abandon a den if interaction appears too close or frequent.

           

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[glenn57]

kinda funny you posted this, just yesterday I had gone up to moms for a bit. turning the corner to my house I see a rabbit in the neighbors yard, yea the NL's. she was acting all weird. so I get closer and there are these 2 crows sitting in her tree. I pull into the driveway and watch. I notice a young, baby bunny mulling around. I see where she had her little ones cause there old grass clippings and hair kind of thrown about. as i'm watching I see one of the crows was eating something. here it was a baby bunny.

now I've seen these crows fly around on occasion, and I've seen millions of them along side of the road eating on dead critters but never before have I seen them pluck and eat a live critter. I get out of my car and wonder a bit down the street and see the other baby didn't even have it's eyes open yet, but that momma rabbit sure was nervous. not sure what happened after that as I went about my business.

[Rebel SS]

I posted about that a while ago.....saw a huge crow nail a poor baby bunny last year, peck it to death while it was screaming and trying to hop away....couldn't handle watching that.
Crow tore it up and ate it. While mowing saw the head and feet left.