It’s a beautiful spring day in Northeast Michigan. You’re out in the woods to soak in the natural beauty that makes this region such a great place to live, when you stumble upon a small, spotted fawn curled up in a thick of grass. There appears to be no doe around watching over the little one, who seems abandoned and frightened and oh, so, small …

Leave it be.

So the Michigan Department of Natural Resources told reporter Julie Riddle for a front-page story on Monday.

Shelby Hiestand, DNR wildlife biologist for Presque Isle, Montmorency, and Alpena counties, told Riddle she gets dozens of calls each spring from residents asking how they should help a baby animal. But Hiestand says animals parent differently than humans.

Does actually leave their fawns because they don’t want their own scents to attract a predator to their scentless, camouflaged young one.

Our interference could actually make the baby more unsafe than the other way around.

“You have that instinct that they need help, but they really don’t,” Hiestand said. “Mom knows best.”

Those big fawn eyes put tug at your heart strings, but we encourage you to do do what the DNR and mother says, and leave the little ones be.

(THE ALPENA NEWS)