I was driving up our road yesterday noontime when I saw a doe standing in the middle of the road. As I slowed down a tiny, very young fawn came scrambling out of the brush on the left side of the road. Mama leapt into the brush and the field on the right, but baby could not quickly get up the bank. Either instinct or good training made her instantly fold herself up as small as possible in the drainage ditch by the side of the road. She did not move a muscle, even when I quietly and slowly got out of the car to take this photo. I used the zoom and did not get too close; she remained absolutely immobile. I drove on a little further and stopped the car again, waiting and hoping that Mama would come back to take the little one away, and I could get another photo. No such luck. I parked the car at our house and walked back, not very far, but mother and child had gone. It is not often one gets a look at such a new fawn. It was a special moment.
A warning. I would never have touched this fawn because a friend who is an expert on such things told me that if the fawn had the smell of a human on it, the mother would abandon it and it would be vulnerable to predators. We do have a lot of coyotes in our area.
I don’t believe that a Mother deer would abandon a fawn if someone touched it. Doesn’t make sense to me. I believe that is an old wives tale. They used to say that about birds too. You should just leave wildlife alone even though our maternal instincts want to help or our curosity drives us to be closer.
What a treat! Perfect timing for a perfect moment, nice…
Adorable! We found abandoned baby bunnies and kept them overnight. One was injured by our dog. Bad dog. Anyway, the next day we saw a momma bunny looking about the area so we released the two babies and they were reunited.
Lisa – You may be right, but it is best not to interfere with baby wildlife.
Mattenylou – It was an amazing sight.
Kara – That worked out well for everyone!
Our local wildlife expert (retired from fish & Wildlife and talking on CBC radio about wildlife, answering hone-in questions) confirmed that touching babies does NOT cause their mothers to abandon them, but may kill them from the fear-engendered response to your handling them. You can pick up babies and return them to their nests and their mothers won’t do them in – unless that was her intent in the first place, perhaps because the baby had defects that prevented its surviving on its own.