{"id":22472,"date":"2020-04-18T15:14:18","date_gmt":"2020-04-18T21:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/?p=64264"},"modified":"2020-04-18T15:14:18","modified_gmt":"2020-04-18T21:14:18","slug":"leave-young-wildlife-alone-wildlife-experts-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/leave-young-wildlife-alone-wildlife-experts-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Leave young wildlife alone, wildlife experts say"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"593\" height=\"706\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/04\/Screenshot_2020-04-18-Leave-young-wildlife-alone-wildlife-experts-say.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/04\/Screenshot_2020-04-18-Leave-young-wildlife-alone-wildlife-experts-say.png 593w, https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/04\/Screenshot_2020-04-18-Leave-young-wildlife-alone-wildlife-experts-say-252x300.png 252w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 593px) 100vw, 593px\"><figcaption><strong>Even though this elk calf is resting in a parking lot, it&#8217;s fine. Young wild animals almost never need help from humans, and human intervention often does more harm than good, says Colorado Parks and Wildlife.<\/strong><br \/><em>Colorado Parks and Wildlife<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Kate Sheldon watched with alarm as a neighbor\u2019s off-leash dog separated about three dozen elk cows and calves from their herd.<\/p>\n<p>It all started innocently enough with sunset happy hour walkers along Eagle\u2019s recreation path in Eagle Ranch. As dog owners sometimes do, some let their dogs off leash for a little exercise. One dog owner even threw a ball for his dog in the direction of the frantic elk.<\/p>\n<p>In a few minutes, Eagle police and Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers were there, imploring people to avoid the elk and keep their dogs leashed. The sunset strollers were generally congenial and agreeable.<\/p>\n<p>The elk finally settled down and rested for the night. The next morning they were gone, rejoining the huge herd in the fields along Brush Creek Road south of Eagle.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row shn-donation shn-donation-mobile p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/02\/shn-logo-2x-wht.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/02\/shn-logo-2x-wht.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=mid-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The message is not new from Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials: Leave young wildlife alone.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s that time of year when often well-meaning people deluge CPW offices with visits and phone calls to report that they have \u201crescued\u201d young wild animals that appeared to be \u201cabandoned\u201d by adult animals. Young animals do not need rescuing and can survive without human intervention.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYoung wildlife has the best chance of survival when they are left in the care of their wild parents,\u201d CPW Senior Wildlife Biologist Shannon Schaller said. \u201cPeople mean well when they take wildlife from the wild, but removing young animals improperly from their natural habit is often the wrong thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It can lead to mothers rejecting their young and creating a harmful situation for young wildlife.<\/p>\n<p>What humans might misinterpret as \u201cabandonment\u201d is actually wild animals living a healthy, wild life, said Frank McGee, an area wildlife manager with CPW.<\/p>\n<p>Young wildlife is often left alone in a safe location while adult animals search for food. It is also common for baby birds to sit outside of their nest as they grow bigger and learn to fly, McGee said.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s for your safety, too. The mother is probably nearby and might attack if she thinks her young are in danger, McGee said.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t feed animals, either. It\u2019s illegal in Colorado, plus it\u2019s bad for the animals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWild animals have complex digestive systems and some human food is toxic to animals,\u201d McGee said. \u201cYoung wildlife need to find natural food sources on their own in order to survive and thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/news\/leave-young-wildlife-alone-wildlife-experts-say\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even though this elk calf is resting in a parking lot, it&#8217;s fine. Young wild animals almost never need help from humans, and human intervention often does more harm than good, says Colorado Parks and Wildlife.Colorado Parks and Wildlife Kate Sheldon watched with alarm as a neighbor\u2019s off-leash dog separated about three dozen elk cows [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22472","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 09:54:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22472\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}