Nothing warms the heart like a success story, especially one of an orphaned animal finding a good home. Although I would never suggest that wild animals should become household pets, it is good to know that when nature needs a helping hand there are some people willing to open their hearts and their homes.

This was the case when close friends of mine stumbled across an orphaned bush baby one evening, the mother had more than likely been caught by a predator, as traces of blood and hair could be found in the area and somehow this little tenacious baby survived and was fighting for its life.

The little bush-baby was first spotted when it was trying to climb up the leg of my one friend while he was out in the bush, I am not sure if this was an act of pure desperation on the little creatures side, or if he simply mistook my friends leg for something he could climb to safety too. But as it happened, my friend noting the signs of struggle and the absent mother decided to take the little guy home with him after waiting around in the distance for quite some time in hopes that the mother would return to her baby.

Once home the dehydrated baby was given some fluids, and was placed on a specialized diet given to him through a teat as he was too young to eat on his own still. It was really touch and go for a while, and despite the fact that the baby was incredibly weak, his new family refused to give up on him. It was a 24/7 job but eventually the little guy started regaining his strength. Shortly after he progressed to eating softly mashed fruits.

Now almost a year later Dirkie is a healthy happy bush-baby and he is still residing with his adopted family who loves him immensely, he spends his days sleeping in the safety of their home and normally wakes up just before the sun goes down for the day, to enjoy his daily fresh fruit put out for him and plays about with the family before he heads outside through a window left open for him to go enjoy the life of a happily balanced bushbaby in the freedom of the surrounding bush and tree canopies.

In the picture below, you can see Dirky coming to sit on my lap after just waking up. just about ready to go out and explore.

In this case, Dirky still as the freedom and privileges of living out is life in the wild as nature intended, he simply has the added perks of having a safe home away from predators to stay in. Like I said earlier, wild animals should not be considered or kept as pets, but in this situation it is heart warming to know that animals and humans can co-exist while maintaining a healthy balance.

When you find a baby animal in the wild:

The first thing you should do, is to try and not handle the baby at all, once the baby has the scent of a human on it, the mothers will often push the babies away should they return for it.

Check for any sigh of the animals mother, or a reason for her absence, if it is not clear that the mother will be returning, distance yourself from the baby, remain close enough to ensure its safety and far enough to allow the mother to return if possible.

If and only if it is clear that the mother will not be returning, can you collect the baby and find it a place of sanctuary with someone that knows how and is equip of hand rearing a wild orphan remember that wild animals will need a specialized diet and care in order to survive, if it is a dangerous baby animal, I would suggest that you contact someone that is equip in handling the creature. Alternatively, you could walk away and let nature go its course.

Never attempt to hand-rear a baby animal, if you are not knowledgeable in this field. Trust me, I have seen this numerous times, and it held dire consequences, not only for the animal, but also for the people trying to raise it. More often than not the animal would either not make it, or become a hassle at a later stage that they wished they never encountered, and when it does it is normally too late too re-introduce the animal to the wild, leading to, the animal being caged up unfairly or put down.

Remember a wild animal will always be wild!

Although many wild animals may be very cute when they are young, they will grow up eventually, and it does not matter how tame they might appear their natural instinct for survival is still in tack, at some stage they will either have the need to assert control of their territory or find a new territory all together, and this could lead to them 'acting up' especially when they feel the need to attain alpha status.
Remember that if you do end up with an orphaned wild animal, that it is not simply a task but a lifetime commitment as animals that will not be able to be reintroduced to the wild will never stop needing your care, and this is where many people give up on the animals once the cuteness of the baby stage wears off.

Being kind to nature means that you need to place the animal and its needs first and your own desires to keep the animal last.