(Radio Iowa) — During the springtime, Iowans will occasionally come across a nest of bunnies or a lone fawn in their back yards, even in town. This is the time of year wildlife rescue centers get a flurry of orphaned animal calls. Humane Society spokeswoman Marissa DeGroot says many of these calls can be false alarms, especially when you’re talking about species like rabbits and deer. DeGroot says, “Sometimes it can be difficult to tell if the baby animals are in need of assistance, if they’ve truly been orphaned, or if maybe mom is just keeping her distance in order to keep her babies safe.”

Baby squirrels, raccoons and even opossums can look cute and helpless, but you likely won’t be doing them a favor to pick them up and try to nurse them in a shoebox. For several species, DeGroot says the parents will keep their distance from the nest in order to protect their babies. “For a lot of animals, the parents might only come and visit the young maybe at dawn and dusk,” DeGroot says. “So you just want to be aware that even with the best of intentions, sometimes you end up almost kidnapping a baby wild animal.”

If you do think you’re dealing with an orphaned animal, contact your local animal rescue and don’t handle things yourself.  “Identify if an animal is in immediate need of help or if it’s a situation where you might want to take a step back and observe.” An Iowa D-N-R official says many wildlife babies die soon after being “rescued” from the stress of being handled, talked to, and placed into the unfamiliar surroundings of a slick-sided cardboard box. Should the animal survive, they often succumb to starvation from improper nourishment, pneumonia or other human-caused sicknesses.