By "rescuing" an injured or apparently abandoned baby wild animal, you maybe doing the opposite of what you seek to accomplish, and break the law.

  This time of year, thousands of animals are born in the wild. With the spread of suburban areas into their natural habitats, young animals are increasingly born near humans, who are more apt to discover them without an adult animal nearby. When this happens, a few reminders are especially pertinent.

  While some baby animals may be orphaned or abandoned, that’s not always true.

  Picking up a baby animal that is not orphaned or abandoned is not only usually unnecessary; it can be bad for the animal. It's also illegal if you don't have the proper permit or take the animal straight to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator.

  Such animals also pose safety and health risks for humans. They may look helpless, cute and cuddly, but they can bite or scratch people who attempt to handle them. Some wild animals carry parasites and infectious diseases, some of which can be transmitted to humans.

  "The apparent lack of an adult does not mean a young animal is orphaned," said Linnea Petercheff, operations staff specialist for the DNR Division of Fish & Wildlife. "Adults often leave their young alone, safe in nests or dens while they forage for food, but rarely do they abandon their young."

  If a bird has fallen out of a nest, it is OK to gently return it to the nest. The best way to make sure an animal is truly orphaned is to wait and check it periodically. If you are unsure, place some strings or sticks across the nest. Place some grass across the top of a rabbit nest that is found with young in it.

  If such items are later disturbed, the mother has probably returned. In such a situation, leave the young animal alone. The adult will return after you leave the area. As an example, rabbits often come to the nest to feed their young only a couple of times a day.

  The best way to make sure that a fawn that appears to be alone is truly orphaned is to wait and check it periodically. Before taking any action, remember the following:

  ~ If the fawn is not injured, the mother is likely nearby.

  ~ Leave the fawn alone and its mother will probably come and get it. Deer can take better care of their young than a human can.

  ~ Human scent on the fawn will not prevent the mother from taking care of it.

  ~ If you do not see any deer nearby, have someone watch the fawn without being seen by the mother. In most cases, the mother will come back and get the fawn after you leave the area.

  If you believe the mother has not returned to a nest or a deer has not come back to feed her fawn, or you know that the mother is no longer alive, call a licensed wildlife rehabilitator listed at: www.wildlife.in.gov.

  Remember, state laws prohibit keeping protected wild animals without a permit. Most species of wildlife are protected by law and cannot be kept as a pet. Federal laws also prohibit possession of migratory birds, including songbirds, raptors and waterfowl. It is even illegal to treat wild animals for sickness or injury without a permit.

  Wild animal rehabilitation permits are issued to qualified individuals who take in sick, injured, or orphaned wild animals with the intent of releasing them back into the wild.

  Although this article came from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, the information it contains applies to baby or injured animals in all 50 states. So if you encounter an injured, truly abandoned or sick wild animal, do one of the following for assistance:

  ~ Check your state’s DNR website for information. Links can be found at www.backwoodsbound.com/stgamedepts.html. In Indiana go to www.wildlife.in.gov and click on "Wildlife Rehabilitation".

  ~ Call your state’s DNR. In Indiana contact the DNR Division of Fish & Wildlife in Indianapolis, (317) 232-4080.

  ~ Call your DNR law enforcement district headquarters or regional headquarters. Contact information for Indiana is at: http://www.in.gov/dnr/lawenfor/2755.htm

  ~ Call a licensed veterinarian for immediate assistance with a sick or severely injured wild animal.

  For more information about the great outdoor adventures in Indiana, visit their web site at www.wildlife.in.gov.

  Snakes. The very word incites some people with a primeval fear of the serpent, one of the oldest emblems of evil.

  As an outdoorsman I have had many encounters with snakes through the years and I expect to have a few more in the future. We travel too many of the same places and every year I encounter a number of snakes, both poisonous and non-poisonous.

  In Eastern Oklahoma we have three kinds of poisonous snakes. The copperhead is the smallest of the venomous snakes and they are known for frequenting rocky areas or old brush piles. One of the largest ones I have ever seen came sliding out from under a large piece of tin I pulled out of a pile of rubble alongside my dad's old barn. We quickly cut his head off with an ax we had laying there handy. It was cold and he was moving slow, but he had set up to hibernate for the winter less than 100 feet from the house.

  Cottonmouths are the most aggressive of the venomous snakes. They are short bodied snakes with a stubby tail. I have been struck at by more cottonmouths than any of the other snakes combined. Twice I have narrowly avoided them with a spry jump over them as they lay in my path. Another time, I leaped straight back as my 20 gauge semi-auto shotgun ripped the snake into several pieces right at my feet in the path home from the creek where I had been squirrel hunting. A shotgun is a devastating weapon at close range.

  Rattlesnakes are the biggest of the reptiles but in my opinion they are the most docile of the three. Perhaps docile is not the correct word, but they are not as aggressive as their smaller cousins except when they are shedding, known locally as "in the blind" because they can not see when they have recently shed their skin. Larger snakes are more likely to give warning bites, dry of poison than the smaller snakes, but a hurt snake is going to empty his venom sack. I have walked back and forth within 6 inches of a rattlesnake before and he never rattled, he never moved and he never struck.

  We owned a rock quarry on our property in Oklahoma and it is nestled several miles off the closest paved highway and rattlesnakes were not uncommon. We had killed several in the quarry where we had intended on working when we arrived in the mornings. This particular time we had put several pallets in a staging area shared by my in-laws for their rock quarry they worked on their property. I had been walking beside the pallets of rock, checking weight tags and documenting what belonged to us. I sat down on a pallet of rock to figure up my total weight in the different classes of rock.

  When I moved the pallets to the loading area, there was a 3 1/2 foot rattlesnake coiled next to the edge of the pallet where my foot had stepped a million times that day. He lay less than 6 inches away and he never even rattled. Thank God I had not dropped my pen and have it roll under the pallet!

  Was I lucky?

  More recently in Goliad on a hog hunt we were searching for a big boar Mike shot Saturday night during the morning Sunday. We were about to head back home, but I knew Mike had hit that big boar pretty hard and I thought we might find it.

  David Huber, Chris Lucci's friend and neighbor joined us in our search for Mike's boar. I rode with David to where we had filmed the hunt the night before. I had made acquaintance with David when we teamed up to work on a broken video cable that had almost spoiled our first hunt video of the weekend. Beneath that rancher's exterior was a mechanical engineer retired from the Aerospace industry. He had also forgotten more Texas hog lore than most other hog hunters know. I liked him and he knew Chris' ranch as well as Chris does.

  We spread out and moved through the tall grass and mesquite. I had given Mike my .40 S&W Springfield to carry while holstering my Glock 19. That Glock 19 and I know each other well and while the 9mm is not my first choice for a back up gun with wild hogs I was confident I could put them where I wanted them to go.

  Near the last sight of dried blood, Mike had just moved off from it when David cried out snake and I seen the slithering rattlesnake just a few feet ahead of me. My hand drew the Glock, David firing his .45 ACP at the rattler as it tried to get away in the thick grass. I joined the attack and we soon had several holes in it as David drew a small .22 revolver and shot the snake with a dose of rat shot. Mike stepped in with my .40 and shot the snake through the head at almost point blank range.

  The entire time David Dell had been screaming and running back and forth because through the brush it appeared our arms were extended and shooting in his direction. Okay, maybe not screaming but definitely shouting to let us know where he was at.

  Mike cut the tail off the snake; his foot firmly on the snake’s decimated head at David's insistence.

  As we stood looking at the snake and the rattles David related a recent tale from a friend of his who had shot a rattler in his yard. He shot it with a shotgun and then went into the house and got a knife. He came back out and stepped on the rattler's head, cutting off the rattles and going back in the house.

  The next morning his friend came outside and there was his dead rattlesnake -- with its rattles still attached!!!

  Yeah boy, that raised the hair on my neck!!!!

  If you spend enough time in the woods in snake country you will eventually encounter a snake. Not all varieties are poisonous of course but even the non-poisonous ones can give you a very quick start if they appear suddenly from thick cover or grass. A spread adder bought the farm for popping up right in front of me on the path home from hunting along the creek. My reaction time back in those days was pretty quick and when it came to snakes, I shot first and identified the snake later!!

  An old friend of mine, Jeremy Oliver, and I used to frog gig all over the countryside around where he grew up south of Keota, Oklahoma. We hunted the ponds and the sloughs, taking some big frogs. I never will forget us stalking quietly through the lily pads, water above our knees when Jeremy stopped right in front of me. That's because in front of him was a big cottonmouth intently hunting the same deep voiced bull frog we were after. Then he disappeared into the water.

  If we had witnesses that night you would have seen a biblical experience because I am pretty sure Jeremy and I both ran across the top of that water back to the bank!

  My grandpa tells of an experience his dad told him of fishing Tucker Bottom which is along the Arkansas River in eastern Oklahoma. Tucker Bottom had a lake in it and it was an overflow lake from the rise and flood times of the mighty Arkansas. A cottonmouth tried to get in their boat and one of the other fishermen broke its back with a paddle. The snake put off a scent and suddenly the lake was covered with snakes. They had to shoot a box of .410 shells killing snakes just to get back to the bank.

  Jeremy and I saw this same thing on a smaller scale one night. We had been out for a long time and had gone to some ponds we had not gigged in over a year. Neither of us had a watch and we had been out half the night. Sue, Jeremy's mom came looking for us because she was worried we had went out and got our fool selves hurt, but we hadn't. We had a bunch of frogs and I believe we were only a few from our limit and Jeremy wanted to gig a pond down the road that had been too far for us to walk.

  Well, Sue wasn't too keen on waiting on us and she talked us into gigging a small pond behind the neighbor’s house. We agreed, just happy to be getting to gig some more and she dropped us off, expecting us home in 30 minutes or less.

  Let me state this right now. Jeremy had been dying to gig a snake. Yeah, I know, if you gig one, you gotta get it off the gig, right? Well we had discussed this and Jeremy was sure we could do it. I had a .22 revolver with me and six shots.

  The first thing we encountered was a big cottonmouth in our path. Before I could say anything Jeremy gigged it. The snake struck at the pole and curled up it as Jeremy went to shaking that gig, trying to get that snake off the barbs.

  Cursing and dancing, trying to get the snake off, Jeremy asked me to help him and I said, "Hell no, that's your snake! You wanted him, you got him!"

  Jeremy finally got the snake off and it went to the center of the pond. We started around the pond bank to look for frogs and suddenly there were snakes everywhere. A small slough ran off to the east of the pond and I saw at least two snakes come over the pond dam. I shot all 6 shots from the revolver at snakes and we finally beat it out of there as snakes slithered all around us.

  Jeremy told his mom that she had sent us to the most dangerous pond we ever went to!

  There has been record flooding all through the mid-section of the country this spring and wildlife have been affected in many states. We were wondering how wildlife cope with such conditions and came to the conclusion that they have been dealing with such disasters for thousands of years and nature has a way of taking care of itself. This article arrived in our inbox a week or so ago and thought it could help answer some questions for us. - Editor

  LITTLE ROCK – Water, far too much of it, is dominant in eastern Arkansas these days, and it is having an impact on wildlife.

  That’s the bad news. The good news is that wildlife can come back as shown down through history following disastrous floods.

  Even ducks, absent from Arkansas at present, may change their patterns this fall and winter when migration occurs. Turkey nesting has been hit hard. Deer reproduction will be down. Small game will suffer, although squirrels can escape the water by staying in treetops, where buds can provide food.

  The Arkansas Farm Bureau has estimated flood damage to agricultural crops will be in the range of $500 million. A secondary effect is the lost crops that mean lost food for wildlife. Deer, ducks, turkeys, rabbits and other wildlife make use of leftover grain and soybeans in fields after harvest. This will be absent in coming months in many areas, particularly in lowlands.

  Flood effects in capsule form:

  Turkeys

  The already stressed turkey population of eastern Arkansas is sure to take a heavy hit. The floods arrived with nesting season. The nests are gone. Turkeys often re-nest if the first attempt is destroyed, but biologists tell us the number of eggs laid on the second attempt is smaller. With the floodwaters likely to be around for weeks still, those second nesting attempts diminish in likelihood.

  Adult turkeys can fly out of the way of floods, perhaps resting in trees here and there, but it could be quite a while before they return to home territory. Nesting in dry but strange country isn’t likely, biologists say.

  Deer

  Dick Baxter, AGFC Deer Program coordinator, said, "The high flood waters will likely lead to poor fawn recruitment in some areas of eastern Arkansas this year. Deer populations have adapted to deal with adverse weather or habitat conditions, and poor recruitment this year should not have long-term effects on the population. Deer populations are resilient and will respond quickly to favorable habitat and weather conditions."

  "The rut in eastern Arkansas is typically the latest in the state; this means that fawns are born later in the Delta than other parts of Arkansas. The gestation period for white-tailed deer is about 200 days, and parturition (birthing) dates range from late May to mid-July in the Delta."

  Ducks

  AGFC Waterfowl Coordinator Luke Naylor says the effects for waterfowl likely will be mixed.

  "Extensive flooding may negatively impact food production for wintering waterfowl by shifting and shortening the growing season in habitats such as moist-soil wetlands managed by AGFC, the USFWS and private landowners."

  Habitat impacts in the extensive acreage of bottomland hardwood wetlands in the state are difficult to predict, Naylor said. "However, if water ceases to flow but remains standing in forested impoundments and temperatures rise, we could see red oak mortality and decreased acorn production, both of which would reduce subsequent resource availability for waterfowl.

  "On the other hand, continued flooding of agricultural lands in many areas will lead to later planting and harvest of waterfowl-friendly crops like rice, which in turn could actually increase food availability for waterfowl when they arrive this fall."

  Fish

  Mark Oliver, AGFC chief of fisheries, said, "The flooding may not hurt fish all that much. The spring spawn is over for the most part. The little fry (newly hatched fish) are swimming around, and they have plenty to eat with all the nutrients coming in from the floods."

  Oliver said smallmouth bass generally do not do well in flood conditions, but in Arkansas the smallmouth are mostly found in hill country, not in the lowlands and the Mississippi River regions where the flooding is prevalent.

  The continued high water probably has more effect on fishermen than on fish. Many access areas and traditional boat-launching sites are unusable. Roads to some lakes and streams may be flooded.

  With the Mississippi River water come fish, silt and debris. For many of those oxbow lakes, the effect is recharging them with new fish – game fish and rough fish. Past floods have shown that it’s not unusual for these oxbows to wind up with alligator gar, flathead catfish and blue catfish, in addition to buffalo, carp and some sturgeon.