People often encounter young animals who appear to be wounded or abandoned in the spring.
If you run across one of these baby animals, it's usually best to leave it alone, says a wildlife biologist in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. Most commonly encountered are rabbits, birds and fawns. The female nurses the young in the morning, covers the nest, then leaves until dusk. That's why baby rabbits often appear to be abandoned. But rabbits periodically return to check on their young, she says.