Wildlife rehabilitators collect a wealth of information with every admission, such as location data about where sick, injured, and orphaned animals are found, known or suspected circumstances leading up their rescue, and potential changes seen in population dynamics. One of the more interesting topics – and one that is currently under-studied, relates to the subject of natality, which describes age structures, reproduction rates, and timing of breeding of wildlife animals. For wildlife rehabilitators, the matter of when babies are born and how that timing changes is at the forefront of our jobs throughout the seasons. Here at DCHS’s Wildlife Center, our team is constantly asking “when are we expecting?” or “what species, and how many will we get?” during the spring and summer – which is a gamble from one year to the next. Staff play “baby bingo” each spring to see who can guess what animals arrive first, and in what order, based on decades of our intake history.
Have you already started making your own guesses about when baby wildlife arrives? We think the details might surprise you! Here are the EARLIEST youngsters by species category from data collected at DCHS’s Wildlife Center between January 2007 and April 2026:
Jackie Edmunds is the Wildlife Program Manager at DCHS's Wildlife Center.
Caring for the Youngest Wild Animals
Wildlife Baby Shower
Earlier in April, we held a week-long virtual Wildlife Baby Shower to raise funds, supplies, and awareness for the hundreds of sick, injured, or orphaned young wildlife who will arrive at DCHS’s Wildlife Center in need of care. Thanks to our incredible community, we made the generous $2,500 matching gift challenge set by Steve and Margie Holzhueter, and we collected numerous items from our wish list. We are so grateful to everyone for their support. If you missed our virtual baby shower and still want to support baby wildlife, there’s still time to choose items from our wish list or make a monetary donation on our website – just click on the button below.
