Unattended fawns likely not abandoned
By Dave Bates
For the Observer-Reporter
This spring has not only been a wet one but has offered a phenomenon that has not routinely presented in my years as an outdoorsman. Three times during the months of May and June my phone rang with a concerned party on the other end. The story in all three cases was largely the same:
“We found a fawn – in our backyard, along the road, along the woods line. It is bawling and we don’t know what to do. We put food and water out for it. We laid a blanket down for it. We brought it inside. Can you help? We don’t know what to do.”
So, what should be done with a whitetail fawn if found in the yard without its mama? The short answer is most usual … nothing.
Yes, you read that correctly.
More often than not, the best thing to do for all concerned parties is to leave the fawn alone. In a large percentage of cases, the mother is off foraging. The mother deer, called a doe, is feeding. This is something deer do constantly. In order to stay nourished for her own health a deer needs to take in a large amount of browse, small bits of food found here and there. Caloric intake is even more vital for a doe who is likely nursing her fawn or possibly twin fawns or even possibly triplets. Rearing young can take its toll on mom’s health. She has deposited her young one in an area that she is comfortable with leaving junior. Mum is planning to return to her baby in the near future, and the less we do to interfere with that process, the better for all, especially the fawn.
The doe will most likely feed for a couple of hours with baby learning patience, learning how to be alone for brief periods, and learning to use its natural camouflage – the spots that young deer are born with. These spots fade as babies mature, and mature deer are left with a plain coat as they grow into adults. Young deer have little to no scent so as to make them more difficult for predators to detect. This along with sitting still and being quiet are some of a whitetail’s biggest advantages in keeping safe.
I have heard tales that handling a fawn (or a bird that falls out of a nest) will result in abandonment by the parent. As far as I know, these are simply tales and nothing more. It is, however, more likely for the parent to stay away from her young longer if she feels threatened by the presence of a human near her fawn. Even with the good intentions of helping a deer in distress, there is relatively no distress in the fawn being left alone. It is akin to a human baby wanting its mom and crying for her, a very natural reaction.
In the willows along the stream behind our barn is a hollowed-out spot where I traditionally hear a fawn every year. It is cool in the creek bed, the sand makes for a soft bed, water is available and I believe that the sound of the running brook masks any sound by the baby deer that might otherwise cause it to be detected. A fawn bleat is occasionally audible but the fawns almost always stay put in their sanctuary until mom returns and whisks them away with her. Think of it as a sort of “deer me time.”
If you have a pet, it might be a good idea to take them inside and keep them away from the fawn until mom comes back. Domestic animals might harass wildlife intentionally or unintentionally and might lead to unwanted problems for both deer and humans.
Lastly, it is against Pennsylvania game law to possess or move wildlife. Even though well intended, the consequences of interfering with animals in the wild can have quite the opposite effect. It’s better for everyone to let nature take its course and error on the side of caution.
Dave Bates writes a weekly outdoors column for the Observer-Reporter. He can be reached at alphaomegashootingsolutions@gmail.com