If You Find a Fawn, Leave it Alone

Posted by Wayne G. Barber

Photo by Raplh Hensley
Posted by Wayne G. Barber
It's that time of year again when white-tailed deer fawns are showing up in yards and hayfields, and concerned citizens want to know how to help. In almost all cases, the best way to help is to simply give the fawn space and leave it alone.

Concerned people sometimes pick up animals that they think are orphaned. Most such "orphans" that good-intentioned citizens "rescue" every spring should have been left alone. Most wild animals will not abandon their young, but they do leave them alone for long periods of time.

According to Wayne G. Barber, host of the OUTDOOR SCENE, fawns, born from April through July, are purposely left alone by their mothers. Female deer, called does, stay away from the fawns to avoid leading predators such as dogs or coyotes to their location. The white-spotted coat camouflages a fawn as it lies motionless in vegetation. Young fawns are "hiders" and will not try to run away when they are approached.

For the first seven to 10 days of life, a fawn will spend up to 95 percent of its time bedded. While bedded, a fawn has a very rapid heartbeat of around 175 beats per minute. When a fawn senses danger is close, it will lower its head and drop its ears, the heart rate will fall to around 60 beats per minute, and the breathing will become slower and deeper – all to try and avoid detection by predators. The first few days of a fawn’s life are a critical time. Most fawns that fall to predators die in their first 10 days of life.

Does will return several times each day to move and/or feed their young. You probably will not see the doe at all since she only stays to feed the fawn for just a very few minutes before leaving it alone again. If less than 24 hours have passed since a fawn has been "rescued," the fawn should be taken back and released at the exact same location where it was found.

Barber states, if a wild animal has been injured or truly orphaned, do not take matters into your own hands. You may locate a licensed wildlife rehabilitator by calling a toll-free wildlife conflict helpline at your State DEM Web-site on a search box.

“If a human touches a fawn, the doe will stop taking care of it.” This is incorrect. It is best to never touch a fawn unless it is in direct danger, like when it beds down near farm equipment or other dangerous areas. But in the event you do need to touch a fawn or carry it away from danger, you have nothing to worry about. Research has shown that most fawns handled by humans survive just fine afterward. If the mother is in sight, try to let her see you set the fawn down. If there is not a doe in the area, find a shady spot with some cover close by and leave the fawn there. If the fawn jumps up and runs off, don’t chase it. It will travel a short distance and pick its own spot to wait for its doe.

Raising a wild animal in captivity is illegal unless you have a wildlife rehabilitation permit, which is issued by DEM. Each animal's nutritional, housing, and handling requirements are very specific and must be met if they have any chance of survival. Feeding the wrong food to a fawn can make it very sick and possibly lead to its death. For example, cow's milk can induce severe diarrhea in fawns.

With even the best professional care possible, the survival rate of rehabilitated fawns and many other animals is very low. More than 50% of fawns brought to rehabilitation facilities die before being released due to injuries they come in with and unavoidable physical stress during the rehabilitation process. Of those fawns that are released, a very small percentage survives the first year in the wild. Furthermore, many rehabilitation facilities have to turn fawns away due to limited housing and staff. Wildlife managers have additional concerns about fawn rehabilitation. The process requires deer to be moved, treated--often in contact with other deer--and then released back into the wild. Often, rehabilitated deer must be released into areas with already high deer populations. Movement and commingling of deer increase the risks that contagious diseases, such as tuberculosis or chronic wasting disease (CWD),