What to do if…

Learn how to tell an adult bird from a fledgling, and how to help in each case.

Not every owlet on the ground needs rescuing. Learn when to step in and when to leave it be.

When to put it back in the nest, and when to leave it alone.

Why fishing line is more dangerous than it looks, and why cutting it yourself is a bad idea.

Why a bird that seems to be “just catching its breath” often has concussion, and how long to wait.

When it needs help, and when this is simply normal behaviour.

In winter a hedgehog should be asleep. One walking on snow in daylight almost always needs help.

How to act safely, and what not to do.

Most often a bat needs only an open way out. But never bare-handed — and letting it go is not always right.

Learn when a kit truly needs help, and when the best thing you can do is leave it in the wild.

Ukraine’s mustelids are confused constantly. Work out who is who — whether the animal needs help depends on it.

Why the mother leaves her kits alone, how long she can be away, and why most “rescues” do harm.

Why mustelids live alongside people, and how to be good neighbours without turning an encounter into a conflict.

Why martens appear in cities, how to behave during an encounter, and when intervention is really needed.

Where to look, which signals work, and how to close the escape route so it does not happen again.

How to tell a pet ferret from a wild animal, what to do during the encounter, and how to help it get home.

What to carry it in, how to keep it calm on the way, and what not to do before setting off.

Fox cubs leave the den long before they live on their own. A cub alone is not a reason to take it.

Foxes have long settled in towns and their edges. Learn when this is mere neighbourhood and when it is a sign of trouble.

Bald patches, exhaustion, daytime activity and indifference to people — the signs that an animal needs help.

In most cases the best help is no help at all. Learn when a fawn really needs assistance.

A roe deer or deer in netting is a case where every minute of struggle adds injuries. Yet freeing it yourself is dangerous.

Why a leveret is almost never abandoned, even when nobody is in sight.

Mowing is the most common reason leverets end up in human hands. The best decision here is not the obvious one.

You may carry it across — but only the way it was heading. Otherwise it will turn back and set off again.

Almost every snake in Ukraine is harmless to people, and grass snakes are mistaken for vipers daily. The rule is simple: do not touch.

Amphibians die in cellars, pools and on roads during migration. Here help is almost always simple.

A stranded dolphin is always an emergency. Almost everything depends on the first minutes.

Fouled feathers stop insulating and stop floating. Washing the bird yourself is the worst thing you can do.