Head O' Meadow administrative assistant Toni Baranowski, who lives in Southbury, has been a wildlife rehabilitator for roughly 32 years and there is something she strongly wants people to know this spring: lone baby animals should mostly be left alone.The Newtown Bee, and she said she heard from a number of people that the advice in her letter was helpful. In the same vein, she offered advice again in the hopes that this year's "baby season" will be better for both the animals and homeowners. For the most part, Ms Baranowski said her advice remains the same as it was 11 years ago.

There is a correct way to help animals that may seem like they are in danger, and Ms Baranowski - who is also a nuisance animal control officer with the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP) - offered advice for helping some of those animals.

In 2005 Ms Baranowski wrote a Letter to the Editor that was published in

How She Began

It all started with a posting in a newspaper.

"There were no classes. There were no instructions. I saw a posting in the newspaper that anybody who wanted to learn how to raise wild animals could go to a seminar up in New Milford," said Ms Baranowski.

She was excited when she read the announcement. She was a young mom and she had loved animals her whole life. It was a six-week course, sponsored, she said, by the only rehab group in the state at the time, called Wildlife Umbrella.

"It was a couple and they both had federal and state licensing... Anybody who took classes with them or worked in their facility with them was covered," said Ms Baranowski. "Right now, you have to [personally] have either a state license or a federal license, and they take care of different animals."

After the course, Ms Baranowski said she had "the joy of working with every kind of animal you can imagine." She worked with birds, reptiles, mammals, amphibians, and birds of prey.

Eventually, when Wildlife Umbrella closed, the state, according to Ms Baranowski, acknowledged the rehabilitator volunteers with rehab licenses.

She has never let her license lapse, because she wants to be able to help when needed.

"I rehabilitated everything - raccoons, squirrels, birds, turtles, and whatever came around," said Ms Baranowski.

With her state license, Ms Baranowski said she can legally pick up a bird of prey or a fawn, which require a federal license to rehabilitate, and bring it to a facility that can help. She said there are great facilities in the state, like Wildlife in Crisis in Weston and A Place Called Hope in Killingworth, which specializes in helping raptors.

Wildlife in Crisis, Ms Baranowski said, can help "almost anything," as it has land at its disposal to release the animals into the wild when they are ready.

The DEEP Wildlife Division created an online database of rehabilitators in recent years, and Ms Baranowski said the resource helps her contact the correct person. People can also call the Wildlife Division, 860-424-3011, for help.

Her daughters, Robin and Kelley, also help when they can, and Ms Baranowski mentioned Head O' Meadow head custodian Wayne Sherwood has helped her a number of times. Mr Sherwood helped her during one case last spring to renest two barred owls.

Good Intentions Are Not Enough

After attending a conference this March, Ms Baranowski was reminded of her 2005 Letter to the Editor. When she wrote it, Ms Baranowski remembers "it was getting out of hand." At the time, rehabbers were "burning out" after taking in too many animals.

"They were taking in three dozen raccoons, and they didn't have the facility, they didn't have the means to support them, and you were having animals die because they were overloading themselves," said Ms Baranowski. "You have to take what you can take."

Rehabbing an animal is a big commitment, said Ms Baranowski.

"Now the whole DEEP is about informing homeowners," Ms Baranowski said, "[about] how to deal properly with orphaned animals."

Helping homeowners know a little more about what to do when they find animals reduces the number of animals that need to be rehabilitated. In her 2005 letter, Ms Baranowski estimated 75 percent of the cases of newborn animals brought to rehabilitations each year could be avoided if correct and immediate action is taken by the homeowner.

In almost every case, she said this month, animals thought to be orphans are not orphaned. Animals like deer and rabbits tend to leave their young during the day to look for food. While people may mean well, helping the baby animal or animals requires knowledge and resources to do it correctly, Ms Baranowski said.

"It has been proven time and time again, even fawns will die if hand-raised," said Ms Baranowski, adding if hand-raised, the fawn is not trained by its parent or other deer. If reintroduced to the wild, she said, the fawn will not have the "wild smarts."

DEEP and the Connecticut Wildlife Rehabilitators are now pushing for people to know how to check for clues if the animal's parent returns overnight.

How To React

For bunny nests, Ms Baranowski said, people can place yarn across the nest in a checkerboard design. If the yarn is disturbed within a day, the mother returned, most likely at night.

With bunny nests frequently situated in yards in the spring, Ms Baranowski also warned that people should check for nests before mowing yards. Bunny nests tend to be placed in shallow depressions in dense grass. If a nest is found, Ms Baranowski said the mother will move the babies to a new location within two to three weeks.

When people find young birds on the ground, Ms Baranowski said to immediately create a makeshift nest - out of a basket or box. Use gloves to place the bird in the fake nest and secure it in the same tree the bird fell from. It can take 24 hours for the mother to return. It is safe for the birds if picked up with bare hands, but birds tend to carry lice, Ms Baranowski said.

If the bird is not feathered and it is cold, Ms Baranowski said the bird can be brought in overnight then put out in the tree at the start of the morning.

"Believe it or not the mother will come to the tree and feed it right in the nest or bring it back into the [tree] cavity. If it falls again, you do the exact same thing," she said.

If birds are moved far from the tree, Ms Baranowski said the mother bird will not know where to look for her baby. If the tree the baby bird was in has been cut down or removed, she said, moving the bird in the makeshift nest to a close tree or side of the house near where the tree was will work fine.

When baby squirrels are found, Ms Baranowski said, makeshift nests again work well. A mother squirrel typically feeds her young twice a day in the wild, just like rabbits. The mother rarely returns to the babies when not feeding them.

Gloves are the best way to handle squirrels too, both because as a mammal the mother will smell the change and because they may carry lice. If gloves are not available Ms Baranowski said rubbing dirt on hands before touching the baby would help to not transfer as much scent.

It is very important to leave the animal in the same place or close to where they were found, Ms Baranowski said.

For fawns, "The best thing you can do is hands off. Do not touch them, do not go near them," she said. "Their mother can smell them, but they do not have a scent. Most people probably don't know that. Newborn fawns do not have a scent at all for the first two weeks."

The lack of a scent, she said, is why the mother deer is comfortable leaving her fawn alone for the day. They can be left in crazy places, she said. Once she received a call for a fawn that was left on a front step. Due to the fallen leaves in the area, Ms Baranowski said the mother deer probably thought her baby would be camouflaged.

When people suspect fawns are left alone too long or if the mother is clearly dead nearby, she said to continue to be "hands off" and to call a rehabilitator. The same advice applies for any other animal, like raccoons or foxes.

If someone finds an animal on their property, she advised keeping dogs and cats indoors and only let dogs out with supervision.

There can be fees charged when people are called in to assist with an animal situation, and they range depending on the situation and the group or person who responds to the call.

. She also said people can contact the DEEP Wildlife Division hotline, 860-424-3011, with questions.Ms Baranowski said she answers questions by e-mail to her account at

wildlifmom@gmail.com