It’s baby season at Yellowstone National Park
Even though many parts of the northeastern United States have experienced high summer temperatures, technically it’s still spring in the Northern Hemisphere, which means many animals are having babies.
This is also true in Yellowstone National Park, home to everything from elk and black bears to river otters and gophers. In a recent social media post, the popular park highlighted some particularly adorable youngsters, including a young bison, a black bear, a yellow-bellied marmot, three bighorn sheep, an elk and two pronghorns.
“As cute and fluffy as they are, remember to leave room for wildlife and use a zoom,” the park wrote. “Always maintain a distance of at least 100 yards (91 m) from bears, wolves and cougars and at least 25 yards (23 m) from all other animals, including bison and elk. Observe more closely using binoculars, a spotting scope or zoom lens.”
As always, listen to Yellowstone park rangers on this matter for your own well-being. However, if you encounter a baby animal on your own in a more suburban or urban environment, it might be best to get involved. For example, it’s best to act quickly with baby opossums (Didelphis virginiana) and baby squirrels.
Opossums are very bad mothers. It is usually not possible to reunite baby opossums with their mother, because when they fall onto her back, she usually continues on her way without them. If you find one or more baby opossums on your own, call a wildlife hospital or licensed wildlife rehabilitator.
As for baby squirrels, they sometimes fall out of their nest. If you find one and 12 hours later the mother hasn’t come to pick it up, pick it up and call a wildlife rehabilitator, Greg Mertz, founder of the New England Wildlife Center program, previously said. Popular science. A video from the same wildlife center gives a hilarious but serious tip: Try returning a baby squirrel to its mother by raising it in a basket (to ward off predators) and broadcasting baby squirrel noises on YouTube (to attract the mother squirrel).
Definitely don’t try this with a teddy bear.
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