Another camouflage feature is that fawns scent glands do not develop fully until a few weeks later, which makes them difficult to smell. Also, a doe will lick their fawns, and eat their urine and feces to make their scentless noticeable and keep predators from detecting them. Most of them do! Deer belong to the Cervidae family, which includes almost 43 species divided into two groups: the Cervinae and the Capreolinae. Most deer fawns are born with white spots for survival purposes; except for a couple of species such as baby reindeer and moose, which are called calves instead of fawns because of their larger size.
These creatures are born in varied colors and weigh around 6 and 16 kg, depending on the species. Whitetail deer might be one of the most popular and known deer species. The Odocoileus virginianus is native to America and has been introduced in some cities around Europe. The main characteristic about these deer is the white hair beneath their tail, along with their brown to red coat and their beautiful antlers, which both male and female have.
Whitetail fawns are born somewhere between May and July in the woods, which can be a pretty dangerous place for a newborn creature with wobbly legs that can barely walk short distances, especially as their mother leaves them alone to find food.
Since they spend so much time hiding from predators, like coyotes, nature gave them a lowering heart rate and white spots as a camouflage system since birth, which they will keep until they turn four to five months old. Around September to late October, fawns will shed their brown-red coat along with their white spots, to grow a thicker and greyer layer to get them ready to survive winter.
By this stage, fawns are strong enough to outrun predators on their own and will start following the doe around for large distances. Articles , Deer. The California Mule deer and Black-Tailed Deer are closely related deer whose range covers much of the state of California. With rapid development of rural areas, deer are losing their natural habitats and are forced farther into suburbia. They now live close to our homes and towns.
In a world where contact with wildlife is more frequent, we may need to change some of our behavior to find ways to live with them. To coexist with deer, they must be understood. Spring and summer is the time of year deer give birth to their young. A deer may have between one and three babies, two being most common.
Fawns are born from April though June. They are born with their eyes open and fully furred. The fawn is able to stand in 10 minutes and can walk in 7 hours.
Young fawn stay with their mother through next winter. Healthy baby fawns are daily left alone by their mothers while the mothers forage for food. Unfortunately, many times a lone fawn is picked up by people who mistakenly think the fawn has been abandoned. Sadly those fawn have been taken from the mother unnecessarily. In other words, they were kidnapped. Kidnapped fawns should be immediately returned to the exact location where they were found and the left alone.
A fawn spends most of its first weeks of life bedded down alone. The doe stays away from her newborn except to nurse it periodically, and to lead it to new bed sites. That way her scent does not attract predators to the area where the fawn is hiding. If she has twins, which is common, the doe will typically hide them in separate places and make the rounds to nurse them. While the fawn nurses excitedly, its tail flicking, the doe licks its fur and genital areas to stimulate urination and defecation.
If a fawn is in distress, it bleats, and the doe, which stays nearby, usually comes running, ready to defend it with her sharp hooves. By two to three weeks of age, they begin to nibble green vegetation. After a month, they will browse on tree seedlings. At this age, they begin to choose their own bedding sites and twins are reunited. By summer, young deer can outrun most danger, and trail their mother closely.
Fawns usually are weaned at two to three months. Female fawns usually stay with their mothers for two years; young bucks leave after a year. A buck fawn can be identified when only a few days old by the two round spots on its head where the antlers will grow. When I examined my photos of the fawn by the trail, I discovered that I had seen a buck. Another spring while taking a walk, I heard a repeated bleating sound like a sheep or goat coming from the woods. I entered a dark conifer stand.
The sound was coming from a deep drainage ditch with water in the bottom. A fawn had fallen in and could not get out. I carefully lifted the little deer out of the ditch and placed it gently on the ground beside a big tree. The fawn was afraid of me. Newborns can move about even on their first day. Typically, however, fawns will not venture forth to graze until they reach between two weeks and a month old.
While the mother leaves her fawns alone for periods of time, these baby deer rest safely and should not be disturbed. The mother never ventures far afield, and she will move her fawn when she returns. The spots on the fawns begin to fade at around three to four months old. Fawns wean by the end of summer. By the time fawns reach roughly six months old, they participate more socially. They play and exhibit great curiosity, and tend to be less wary than adults. More aggressive buck fawns tend to enter clearings first.
These fawns possess shorter snouts than adults. The bodies of fawns at this age are short and square-shaped when compared to adult does. By winter, fawns will weigh between 60 and 70 pounds and show no spots. Their coats change according to season. Because does primarily form white-tailed deer social groups, female fawns tend to stay with their mothers longer than male fawns. At three and a half years, does reach maturity.
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