Creatures’ Best Friends Couple Run Panhandle’S Only Sanctioned Wildlife Rescue Center

Bambi got help from a rabbit and a skunk after a hunter killed the Disney deer’s mother and left him an orphan.

But in the real woods, fawns and other critters rarely need a rescue.

Wild animals seldom get abandoned by parents, even when they appear alone, and people need to resist the urge to pick them up, biologists say.

“They are better off left alone,” said Phil Cooper, with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Folks out walking their favorite trails, working in the woods or motoring off-road may run across what look like orphaned deer, elk and raccoons this time of year.

In spring and early summer, wildlife reproduction peaks. That gives folks a glimpse of a nest full of gaping baby birds or a tiny, spotted fawn curled in tall grass without a mother in sight.

Usually, the little guys aren’t motherless at all. Many species are raised by one adult that leaves babies alone to find food. Experts say the only time people should try to rescue wild animals is when they are seriously injured or if their parents are dead. Besides, it’s illegal to possess most species of wildlife.

But people do pick up animals and take them home, hoping to turn them into pets, Cooper said.

He once confiscated a young buck that someone kept - hidden - in a horse trailer for a month. The animal was too tame for release into the wild. Caged, it later broke its neck after its antlers became tangled in netting.

People grab raccoons, too, then regret it when cute, fuzzy babies turn into wild animals with sharp teeth and claws.

That’s when Mary Vanderbilt gets them.

“The public is not doing wildlife one bit of a favor by picking it up,” said Vanderbilt, who runs the only sanctioned wildlife rescue center in the Panhandle.

Vanderbilt rehabilitates animals, with approval from the state game agency. They are later released to the wild, with game animals going once hunting season is over.

Right now, she and her husband, Bud, watch over four tiny deer fawns, baby raccoons, and an elk calf discovered by a logger near Cataldo. Their farm, nestled on a chunk of land off Hayden Lake, rings with the calls of pea hens, chickens and the sounds of a working cattle ranch.

As Vanderbilt enters the elk pen, the calf’s whimpers join the chorus. She responds to Vanderbilt as if the human is her mother, mewing and nuzzling roughly at her pink T-shirt between guzzles at a four-pint baby bottle. The calf goes through 12 cups of high-fat formula a day, zapped in a microwave for a few minutes.

But don’t let that familiar kitchen appliance fool you: Wildlife rehabilitation is definitely not something anyone can do at home.

For the Vanderbilts, the operation is a full-time job. They don’t go to movies. A dinner date rolls around about as often as oysters yield pearls.

Mary Vanderbilt tries to get to bed by 1:30 a.m. after feeding all her charges. She wakes at 5:30 a.m., at the latest.

The wrong rescue steps can also kill an animal: Formulas require specific ingredients to mimic natural meals and wild animals easily die from stress and clumsy handling.

“You have to remember these are wild animals,” Vanderbilt said. “These are not animals that are happy under any circumstances.”

Occasionally, an animal is obviously orphaned.

Cooper tried to catch two fawns on Mineral Ridge early last week after their mother was killed by a car on the road below.

But the tiny animals evaded Cooper and another state officer.

“I chased those two all over the hillside and couldn’t catch them,” Cooper said at the time. “They won’t survive if we don’t.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: AT A GLANCE Wildlife tips

Never assume a wild animal is an orphan. Even standing near a deer fawn, elk calf or duckling can scare off parents. But if an animal is seriously injured, or a baby is definitely parentless, biologists have some recommendations:

Call the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at (208) 769-1414 to pick them up.

If you choose to pick up the animal while waiting for help, keep it in a warm, dark area. Avoid handling: It can kill the animal through stress, and you run the risk of disease or scratches and bites.

Do not raise an animal on your own. To prevent injuries or death to animals, confine household pets when unattended, especially in spring and early summer.

Zaz Hollander can be reached at (208) 765-7129 or by e-mail at zazh@spokesman.com.