JAMESTOWN, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – The North Dakota Game and Fish Department offers a simple message to well-intentioned humans who want to pick up and rescue what appear to be orphaned baby animals this time of year: don’t touch them.

Whether it is a young fawn, duckling, cottontail rabbit or a songbird, it is better to leave them alone.

Game & Fish Wildlife Biologist Doug Leier.

Anytime a young wild animal has human contact its chance for survival decreases significantly. It’s illegal to take wild animals home, and captive animals later returned to the wild will struggle to survive because they do not possess learned survival skills.

Citizens should also steer clear of adult wildlife, such as deer or moose that might wander into urban areas. Crowding stresses animals and this can lead to a potentially dangerous situation.

In other outdoor news, Leier encourages youth ages 12-15 who want to operate a boat or personal watercraft by themselves with at least a 10 horsepower motor must pass the state’s boating basics course.

The course is available for home-study from the Game and Fish Department’s Bismarck office. Two commercial providers also offer the course online, and links to those sites are found on the department’s website at gf.nd.gov.

While the home-study course is free, students are charged a fee to take it online. The online provider charges for the course, not the Game and Fish Department. The fee remains with the online provider.

Upon completion of the online test, and providing a credit card number, students will be able to print a temporary certification card, and within 30 days a permanent card will be mailed.

Visit gf.nd.gov for more information.

Listen to Doug Leier talk the Great Outdoors with JD in the Morning each Thursday at 7:35 AM on Big Dog 95.5 FM.