Pa. Game Commission springtime alert: Leave young wildlife alone
Jun. 3—Whether in their backyards or high on a mountain, it's almost certain Pennsylvanians will encounter young wildlife this time of year.
While some young animals might appear to be abandoned, usually they are not. It's likely their mothers are watching over them from somewhere nearby.
So when encountering young wildlife, be it deer, birds, raccoons or other animals, the best thing to do is leave it alone.
"Well-intentioned people might step in to help a young animal that appears to be alone, not realizing its mother is nearby and it's not in need of help," said Matthew Schnupp, the Game Commission's wildlife management director. "That's one reason why leaving young wildlife undisturbed in the wild typically is the best solution when encountering young wild animals."
Adult animals often leave their young while they forage for food, but they don't go far and they do return. Wildlife also often relies on a natural defensive tactic called the "hider strategy," where young animals will remain motionless and "hide" in surrounding cover while adults draw the attention of potential predators or other intruders away from their young.
Deer employ this strategy, and deer fawns sometimes are assumed to be abandoned when, in fact, their mothers are nearby.
The Game Commission urges Pennsylvanians to resist the urge to interfere with young wildlife or remove any wild animal from its natural setting.
Such contact can be harmful to both people and wildlife. Wild animals can lose their natural fear of humans, making it difficult, even impossible, for them to ever again live normally in the wild. And anytime wildlife is handled, there's always a risk people could contract diseases or parasites such as fleas, ticks and lice.
Wildlife that becomes habituated to humans also can pose a public-safety risk. Some years ago, a yearling, six-point buck attacked and severely injured two people. The investigation into the incident revealed that a neighboring family had illegally taken the deer into their home and fed it as a fawn, and they continued to feed the deer right up until the time of the attack.
It is illegal to take or possess wildlife from the wild. Under state law, the penalty for such a violation is a fine of up to $1,500 per animal.
Under no circumstances will anyone who illegally takes wildlife into captivity be allowed to keep that animal, and under a working agreement with state health officials, any "high risk" rabies vector species confiscated after human contact must be euthanized and tested; none can be returned to the wild because the risk of spreading disease is too high.
Animals infected with rabies might not show obvious symptoms, but still might be able to transmit the disease. Though any mammal might carry rabies, the rabies vector species identified in the agreement are: skunks, raccoons, foxes, bats, coyotes and groundhogs.
People can get rabies from the saliva of a rabid animal if they are bitten or scratched, or if the saliva gets into the person's eyes, mouth or a fresh wound.
Only wildlife rehabilitators, who are licensed by the Game Commission, are permitted to care for injured or orphaned wildlife for the purposes of eventual release back into the wild
For those who find wildlife that truly is in need of assistance, a listing of licensed wildlife rehabilitators can be found on the Pennsylvania Association of Wildlife Rehabilitators website, pawr.com.
If you are unable to identify a wildlife rehabilitator in your area, contact the Game Commission by phone at 1-833-PGC-WILD or 1-833-PGC-HUNT.
PGC schedules Junior
Game Warden camps
Whether collecting forensic evidence that will bring poachers to justice, tracking down lost hikers or live-trapping black bears for research, Pennsylvania State Game Wardens have among the most unique careers in wildlife conservation.
This summer, youths ages 12 to 15 can experience some of it for themselves.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission is holding one-day Junior Game Warden Camps across the Commonwealth, providing those who attend a structured, fun-filled day learning about the career of a Pennsylvania State Game Warden.
Campers will spend the day with game wardens, gaining insight into the job and the Game Commission's mission of managing and protecting the state's wildlife and habitats while promoting hunting and trapping.
Campers will join wardens in light physical fitness, activities, confidence-building exercises and at hands-on learning stations. Campers will learn about wildlife forensics and methods used by wardens to catch poachers and solve wildlife-related crimes. Other activities will involve wildlife-capture techniques, woodland tracking and outdoor survival.
The camps begin at 8 a.m. and end at 3 p.m. Registration can be completed online. Registration is limited to those who have not attended a camp held previously.
The dates and locations for the camps are as follows:
—Northcentral Region — Friday, June 23, at Scotia Building, State Game Lands 176, Scotia Range Road, Warriors Mark. Registration is limited to 30 participants.
—Southcentral Region — Saturday, June 24, at Greencastle Sportsman's Association, 3260 Sportsmans Road, Greencastle. Registration is limited to 40 participants.
—Northeast Region — Thursday, June 29, at North Montour Sportsmen's Association, 163 Sportsmans Road, Danville. Registration is limited to 36 participants.
—Northwest Region — Thursday, July 6, at the Game Commission Northwest Training Center, 647 Polk Cut-Off Road, Franklin. Registration is limited to 60 participants.
—Southwest Region — Wednesday, July 19, at the Game Commission Southwest Region Office, 4820 Route 711, Bolivar. Registration is limited to 40 participants.
—Southeast Region — Friday, July 21, at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, 100 Museum Road, Stevens. Registration is limited to 60 participants.
Brady's Lake Road to be
closed for maintenance
The Northeast Region of the Pennsylvania Game Commission is advising anglers and boaters that the access road to Brady's Lake on State Game Lands 127 in Coolbaugh and Tobyhanna Townships will be closed for maintenance beginning June 1.
The closure will last approximately two weeks so improvements can be made to the road.
According to Land Management Group Supervisor Ryan Gildea, the project will focus on improving drainage issues on approximately 3,300 feet of road. A stone sub-base will be added and driving surface aggregate (DSA) will be applied to the road surface.
The project is being completed in conjunction with the Monroe County Conservation District and Penn State's Dirt and Gravel program.
PGC updates public
on CWD surveillance
With a little time yet to go in the 2022-23 surveillance year, the Game Commission has already detected Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in more deer this year than the one before, once again highlighting the threat the disease poses to Pennsylvania's deer and elk, and hunting heritage.
CWD is an always-fatal neurological disease affecting cervids, including deer and elk. There is no vaccine and no cure for animals that get it.
Since July 1, 2022, the Game Commission collected nearly 11,000 CWD samples from deer. Hunter-harvested samples made up the bulk of those, with more than 7,000.
To date, a total of more than 400 wild deer tested positive for CWD, 243 of them harvested by hunters. Both numbers are up from the year before when 261 deer overall, 174 of them harvested by hunters, tested positive.
"CWD surveillance is crucial to managing the disease," said agency CWD Section Supervisor Andrea Korman. "CWD is a serious threat to deer and elk. Knowing where the disease is allows us to focus our efforts to keep more deer from becoming infected."
One of those efforts is using CWD Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) units to focus harvest and surveillance. For 2022-23, there were 15 specific CWD DMAP units across the state. Hunters could purchase up to two additional antlerless permits to be used within these CWD DMAP areas.
In addition to CWD DMAP units, the Game Commission selected three areas last fall as Containment Zones (CZs). CZs are small areas — with about a 1-mile radius, or the average size of a deer's home range — around the location of a high priority CWD-positive deer, meaning one in a completely new area or on the leading edge of CWD's spread.
Landowners and hunters within these smaller CZs are offered additional opportunities to harvest deer that may have come into contact with the infected deer. These opportunities include both special regulations and extended hunting seasons. The Game Commission continued to work with these landowners after the hunting seasons to harvest additional deer surrounding the initial CWD detection.
"The results of this year's efforts around recent detections were encouraging," said Korman. "Landowners and hunters were supportive and eager to help protect deer in their area. This increased sampling close to the detections found no new CWD-positive animals."
As with previous years, most of the deer that tested positive for CWD in the 2022-23 hunting season came from Disease Management Area 2 (DMA 2), located in southcentral Pennsylvania, and were concentrated in the Established Area (EA) that covers portions of Bedford, Blair, Franklin, Fulton, and Huntingdon counties. This area, where CWD is considered established within the deer population, has produced nearly 90% of Pennsylvania's CWD-positives since the disease first was detected here in 2012.
That's why the Game Commission, in cooperation with the Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Penn State University and the Wildlife Futures Program at Penn Vet, the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine, is conducting a CWD research study in that area. Crews captured 32 deer last winter in Bedford and Fulton counties and gave them ear tags and GPS collars.
"Based on the number of CWD-positive animals we continue to detect in this area, it's clear that CWD is a persistent problem and will require long-term management," Korman said. "People in Pennsylvania believe that responding to wildlife disease is one of the Game Commission's most important roles."
A critical part of this research is testing deer that have been ear tagged or collared. If you find or harvest a tagged deer, please call the number on the ear tags so samples can be collected.
In the meantime, this past season in Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) 4A, which includes the EA, one in three hunter-harvested adult deer (more than 1 year old) tested positive for CWD. This is up from just a year ago when it was one in five. CWD was also detected in a free-ranging wild deer on the east side of the Susquehanna River for the first time, in Dauphin County.
Changes to DMA boundaries that result from newly detected CWD-positives will be developed and announced at a later date.
"Because of this continued spread, we increased the antlerless allocations in WMUs where CWD has been detected for this upcoming hunting season," Korman said. "We will be closely monitoring the harvest to see if that increased allocation was sufficient to slow the spread of the disease, and if not, other options will be considered, including extending the seasons to create more opportunities for hunters to harvest deer in these areas."
Agencies are limited in what can be done to address CWD, she added. Reducing deer populations is one of the only tools that has shown results.
"Hunters are passionate about deer in Pennsylvania," said Bryan Burhans, Game Commission Executive Director. "And they will do just about anything to protect them. In this case, we need them to do what they do best. Hunt more!"
More information about CWD in Pennsylvania, including access to the CWD Surveillance Dashboard and the CWD Response Plan, is available at pgc.pa.gov/cwd.
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Reach Bill O'Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle
