Photograph by Joe Mac Hudspeth, Jr. · www.southernfocus.com
News and Events
Fawn Drop in Mississippi
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Photo by Joe Mac Hudspeth, Jr.
In order to best measure the time when does drop their fawns each summer, you must first identify when the fawns were conceived. Conception dates for deer coincide with the peak of the rut. The rut generally occurs in the Delta sometime between the first week of December through Christmas. Deer gestation periods vary from 190-210 days. The law of averaged generally allows does to begin giving birth first or second week of June in the Delta area.
When fawns are born, they are essentially helpless. During the first couple weeks of life, they lay motionless, bedded in tall grass or debris. They are also born with virtually no smell or scent. By lying motionless in thick cover and not emitting any odor, young fawns are nearly undetectable by predators like Coyotes, Bobcats, and Foxes. To further ad the fawn’s ability to go avoid predation, the mother leaves the fawn, only returning briefly to feed the fawn every four hours.
After about two months have passed, the fawn’s digestive system has developed enough for it to begin to feed on native browse. However, young deer still does not venture far from the bedding area where it has laid motionless for two months. At ten weeks, most fawns are weaned and are exclusively eating herbaceous vegetation. At three to four months, their spots fade and the young deer begins to resemble an adult deer.
Not understanding the effectiveness of the adult doe’s parenting strategy, many people who stumble upon abandoned fawns immediately think the worst. Many feel the need to help the baby, but in fact, they are doing the opposite. Orphaned fawns are often put to sleep in wildlife rehabilitation centers and a fawn who escapes a human’s attempted rescue is often marked with new scents that will empower predators to locate the young animal. Regardless of our human emotions, we must refrain from “helping” fawns when they are quite capable of helping themselves.
Sam Franklin is a Wildlife Biologist with Delta Wildlife.