By Christopher Milette
For HDMedia
If you spend any time outdoors — especially near wooded areas — in the Kanawha Valley and across West Virginia, you know that from late May to mid-June, white-tailed deer provide extra surprises as fawns are born and might be seen with their mothers.
So if you notice a doe with her fawn, or especially if you find a fawn alone, there are a few things you should know:
First, fawns are born with white spots on their coats, just like in the 1942 animated Disney movie, “Bambi.”
Those spots are called “disruptive coloration,” which is meant to be camouflage to elude predators. Those spots “disrupt the pattern of the fawn and make [it more difficult for] a predator to identify it,” said Christopher Rota, professor of wildlife and fisheries resources at West Virginia University.
“It’s not a solid brown. It’s brown contrasted with white,” he said. The spots mimic the pattern of the sun’s stipples across the ground and brush in the forest.
“This is common in a lot of mammals,” Rota said.
The fawns’ spots will fade by autumn, but by then the young deer have learned enough survival tricks to (hopefully) protect themselves.
Second, in the wild, and especially in the woods, Rota said it’s not uncommon to see a fawn bedded down without mama in sight.
“When they are first born, [fawns] don’t run very well,” Rota said. “They’re supposed to lie on the ground, stay still and not be seen by predators.
Sometimes when hiking in the woods, people will see a fawn alone, Rota explained. But the mother is nearby and will check in with her baby often to feed it and move it.
“She’s not far, usually no more than 100 yards away,” Rota said.
“If we took that fawn to [an] animal rescue [facility], studies show there is a low survival probability once [they’re] released back in the wild,” Rota said. “That’s because they’re not learning from their mom how to be a deer.”
So, better to just leave Bambi alone.
Read more from HDMedia, here.
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