The Director of the Outdoor Campus in Sioux Falls wants people to know it’s important to leave wild animals alone. A new social media campaign is helping spread the word.
Outdoor Campus Director Thea Miller Ryan says hundreds of calls come in each year from people who find baby animals. She says people think they’re being helpful, but picking up the creatures can actually be harmful. This year every time someone calls about baby animals she posts a picture of a sugar skull sparrow on the internet. It the kind of artwork used for the Day of the Dead in Mexico.
“Well we’re just hoping for a visual awareness,” Ryan says. “So if people start seeing them and they start realizing how many times people call us with these questions, they might remember the next time they see a baby bird, or a fawn, or a baby raccoon to justleave it where they found it.”
Ryan says sometimes people think baby animals have been lost or abandoned, when they haven’t. She says nature can be rough, but it’s best to let it be.