After the Babes of Summer Have Gone

Each Spring we wonder if we’ll survive the challenges of our looming season of caring for hundreds of orphaned wild animals. Each Spring we do what we can to reduce the number of trapped or killed wild mothers, stop needless nest destruction and anything else we think of to keep wild families together. Still, each year we admit more babies each year than the year before, and 2018 was no different. In fact we broke records this year for wild orphans treated.

And we are close to surviving the challenging pace!

[Help us pay our remaining 2018 bills – please, on this #GivingTuesday, donate to HWCC/bax and help us finish the year and prepare for 2019! Donate HERE]

Last week, we released the last of the babies we’ve been caring for at HWCC since the Summer – two late season raccoons (Procyon lotor) and a Black-tailed Deer fawn (Odocoileus hemionus) who also was brought to us unusually late in the season.

As the last babies in care from this very hectic year, we are so glad that they made it home to their wild freedom. Please take a moment and look through the photographs from their releases. They’re the reason for the season.

Simply transporting an older fawn in a crate to the release site is highly stressful! Once sagely arrived, opening the door is a thrill! HWCC/bax intern, Tabytha Sheeley does the honors!
A tentative glance – can it be true? are there really no walls to confine me?!
Just a hint of spots remain for this young deer, who was found near Blocksburg huddled next to his dead mother. Nearly every fawn we admit is traumatized by their mother’s death and requires a couple of days of supportive before they will accept a milk substitute.

One last look back to see if we are still a threat…

And then away he goes…

… quickly putting distance between himself and our release team. So long young deer!


Just as with our fawns, raccoons are admitted in a typically helpless state. Roughly four months of care are needed to until these guys are old enough for independence. Our favorite release site is several miles form the nearest house, with a healthy forest and a tributary of a local river that provides all the resources (like fish!) our former patients need.

These two raccoons aren’t siblings, but they were admitted for care within a few days of each other. Once their initial quarantine period was over (to prevent transmission of disease or parasites) they’ve shared housing their entire time in care. Now they have the chance to spend time together by choice!


After exploring the real river (our housing for raccoons has an artificial river where they learn to fish) this young male finds an interesting leaf, but as you can see, the forest has suddenly captured the attention of his superb raccoon intelligence…Soon both raccoons leave the release and head up into the woods, where insects, mushrooms, and more await them.
Another successful release of successfully raised wild babies!


As we conclude baby season 2018, we are very grateful for the support we’ve received. We couldn’t have gotten through this Spring, Summer and Fall without you! We still have expenses to cover and we also need to begin making necessary repairs and other maintenance so that we’ll be ready when it starts all over again in only four months!

We’re publishing this story on #givingtuesday. Now, like you our inboxes are filled with pleas for support on this day, and we appreciate the mounting alarms of our era, but truly, without you, we’d no longer be able to keep our doors open, our raccoon river flowing, our deer milk on tap and our 1200 patients that we treat each year would have nowhere to go. Your support keeps the abyss closed. Please, help us help our wild neighbors! Thank you!!!


all photos: Bird Ally X/Laura Corsiglia

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Mule Deer Fawns Released! (Pictures!!)

Fawn calls are the most difficult. When a compassionate person stumbles across a fawn bedded down near a road, or near a construction site, or some other hazard created by people, and with no doe in sight, it can be very hard to think they should just leave the fawn alone. If they call us, we can usually discover through questions and conversation the situation and determine if the fawn needs care. Convincing a concerned person to put a fawn back in what clearly looks like an unprotected location can be challenging, even though in many cases that is exactly what the fawn and the fawn’s mother need. Often however, there is no way to put the fawn back. The caller got the fawn from someone who got the fawn from someone, or a dog dragged the fawn to the porch and no one knows from where, or the person has had the fawn at their house for many days and now the mother is no longer nearby – in these situations, it often means a perfectly healthy family is broken up, but there is nothing we can do but raise the fawn as an orphan. But no matter how difficult these calls can be, the worst is when it is clearly obvious that the fawn needs help. The worst are when the fawn is lying next to her mother, who is dead, hit by a car or a truck.

[Our fawns are all Black-tailed Deer, a subspecies of Mule Deer, the deer of the West]

Fawns who are truly orphaned seem to be traumatized when they arrive at our facility. Sometimes it can take two days before the fawn will express any interest in a bottle of milk-replacer. Convincing a traumatized fawn to take a bottle of milk is the same task as consoling a heartbroken child, so that he can eat, sleep, and resume his life. In a way it forces the wildlife care provider to form a bond with the newly admitted fawn, an idea that is at the very opposite of wildlife rehabilitation. Keeping wild patients wild, with a healthy fear of people, is as important a piece of our work as providing a proper diet and treating wounds. So warily, we proceed with fawn care.

As soon as a young fawn takes a bottle of milk (in our case, goat milk donated by local goat-keepers – and lots of it! hundreds of gallons! thank you!) we discontinue contact and start to use a bottle rack that puts a barrier between us and our patient. Once a fawn accepts a bottle in a bottle rack, he is ready to join in with our “herd” – the fawns we already have in care who are housed outdoors, and who we rarely see during the four months it takes to wean them from milk to vegetation. But those two days of close contact early on, while the fawn puts them behind her, the care provider cannot forget what it feels like to have a young deer close, who suddenly decides to accept your care and your bottle and drinks hungrily after barely moving from her corner in 48 hours.

[Please help us pay for the expenses of our busiest year ever. Your donation goes directly to the care of our injured and orphaned wild patients. Please, donate today! Thank you!]

In contact only with other fawns, over a period of months our patients are gradually weaned from milk on to vegetation, “browse” we call it, that staff and volunteers collect each day. Young deer eat a lot of leaves! Toward the end of their stay with us this year, we were collecting several wheelbarrow loads each day!

Once weaned and when we are certain that they are eating enough each day to thrive, and their spots are fading fast, we look up from our hectic summer days and see that, yes, indeed it is turning autumnal and a deer release is imminent.

One fawn per crate, each is brought to the release site. We are lucky that a good release site, protected against hunting and full of choice deer habitat is remote but not that far from our clinic. A nearby pond, forest and meadow, and the presence of a deer herd make this a great spot for our youngsters to begin their second chance at wild freedom!

It’s a great moment when the crate’s door is opened and your patient immediately puts distance between you and her!



Once safely away, a newly released fawn stops to consider the change of scenery.


Another fawn bolts for the cover of the trees.

Another fawn turns to assess the danger her caregivers pose…

Six fawns were released!

After this fawn reached the pond he stopped to cautiously consider us.

Zoomed in, it’s easy to see that this guy just doesn’t trust us, even though we delivered him over 200 bottles of milk and scores of wheelbarrow loads of leaves. His mistrust is a terrific sign of our success!


Nothing brings smiles to HWCC/bax volunteers faces like giving our wild neighbors in need a second chance at freedom!

A healthy, independent wild youngster rushing to meet her own destiny on nature’s terms… this is always the best view to be had.


Providing a safe and healthy environment for our wild orphaned patients is a critical part of meeting our mission. Requirements are skill, experience, dedication, hard work and the resources to get it done. We bring what we can to the task, but without your support, your generosity, it would be for nothing. Thank you for making our work possible! Please contribute something today. Each gift matters in the lives of our wild neighbors.

All photos: Bird Ally X

One last picture:

This fawn, burned in the Carr Fire near Redding in July was brought to HWCC/bax for treatment. Sadly, after several days in care, this brave youngster succumbed to her injuries. She tried hard. We’ll always remember her.

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Fawns of 2017!

Each year we are the only resort several Black-tailed Deer (Odocoileus hemionus) fawns have. Orphaned by trucks, cars, and sometimes dogs, young fawns are brought to Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, our wildlife hospital in Bayside, California. A young fawn, often traumatized by the death of her mother, requires specialized care. Typically, young fawns are uninjured and their health is compromised only to the extent that they have been without maternal care. The sooner we receive orphaned deer, the better their chances for survival.

Convincing a fawn that a bottle of formula can replace his mother is no easy trick. And the danger, of course, as with all wild babies, is that our close contact will habituate the orphan to people, who will come to see people as non-threatening. Again, as with all wild animals, this is a dangerous condition. It is simply a fact that wild animals who do not have a fear of humans and human activity are at much greater risk of being injured and killed by people. So steps are taken to disguise the caregiver and as quickly as possible, help the fawn adapt first to the bottle, and second to a bottle rack. Once fawns makes that leap, we sharply reduce our interactions with them until it is time for them to be released, and they make the leap to freedom.

[Help us help wildlife! Your support is needed to care for fawns, swallows and all our wild neighbors in need! Support our work here, today! Thank you!!!]

Bottles are delivered at scheduled times, gradually increasing in amount as the fawns grow, and then decreasing as we wean them from milk replacer to greens. It takes a lot of leaves to raise a healthy fawn!

From admission at a few days old in May it usually is the end of August or early September before they are old enough to join a herd without a mother of their own. This year we released four fawns. Following are pictures from their care and from their big day of new freedom!

Just admitted. Despondent and still following mom’s instructions: Pretend you’re not there and they wont see you.

In care for a month, the gang of orphans form a indisputable bond.

At least twice a day fresh “greens” are offered. It takes a lot of effort to replicate Mama Deer and Mother Earth!

Release day! 



“The last you’ll see of me!” 


For next year we need to greatly expand our available fawn housing. This year we got lucky in the low number of orphaned deer we admitted. In the past we’ve had as many as 14! We’ll be increasing our capacity, but we’ll need your help. Housing that is large enough and protected from predators will take community support to build. As always, we ask you to please help us help our injured and orphaned wild neighbors. You can donate here to support our work, including preparing a better facility for 2018! Thank you!

All photos: Bird Ally X/Laura Corsiglia

our photographer:

Laura Corsiglia set up for the fawn release. (photo by Carol “the Deer Lady” Andersen)

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