This is the only good picture of a fawn I have been able to get. We had seen a doe hanging around some brush patches by the pond for several weeks and guessed she might have a fawn hidden there. Last weekend, this baby came running across the road from the pond following it's mother.The deer are in the summer coats now. Very reddish and pretty.
A whitetail deer behavior observation: A month ago, the deer were all running in groups. Now that fawning season is upon us, the does have sent last year's offspring packing, have isolated themselves from the rest of the deer herd, and have begun to raise their new babies, isolated, for safety sake. We have seen quite a few new fawns this spring in the valley, but almost all were single fawns. We have only seen one set of twins, and that was in Grandpa and Grandma's front yard.
I am on the road a lot and I see two seasons of the year when there are a lot of deer killed on the highways. The fall, when the deer are mating and driven mad by love. The spring, when last year's fawns have been rejected or abandoned by their mothers and despondent, they jump in front of the next car. Hey, it's a theory.
3 comments:
SADD:
Seasonal Affective Deer Depression.
Last week I was following a flat bed trailer on Route 86. A young deer was attempting to cross the road. When it saw the truck, it jumped as high as it could, landing on the back of the empty flatbed trailer. It then slid off the back onto the road and ran into the woods, I suppose dejected at the failed suicide attempt.
SADD: I think that's what the wildlife biologist called it. How did you know?
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