FAWNS ARE ARRIVING AS YOU READ THIS. With an estimated over five million deer in Texas and roughly 40% of those being fawns, you can see that there will soon be boo coos of fawns. Every year, we hear of people finding what they think is an abandoned fawn. It’s probably just a fawn hidden in weeds while its mother is foraging for needed nourishment. Nursing their fawns requires that. The accompanying image looks as if the fawn is questioning its mother. But even in wild animals, Mother Knows Best! (Photo by Vicky Jefferson)
by John Jefferson
The mother doe in the accompanying photo seems to be saying to her questioning offspring, “Because I’m the Mommie, that’s why!”
Most human mothers will identify.
Kids of most species reach an early age of maturity where they are beginning to assert their independence, and question almost any parental restraint that interferes. I well remember that in my kids. And even when I think nobody is listening, I admit that in MY early upbringing, I’m told an adult once asked me what my name was right after one of those parental interferences. I replied in disgust that my name was
“JOHNNY DON’T!” I guess I had heard that a lot,
But thank God for mothers! And daddies and uncles. Uncle Pete Burton once punctuated his lesson on not running out into Lucas Drive with a form of corporal punishment. I doubt if I questioned his authority that afternoon.
But it happens in many species. In Denali once, we watched a sow grizzly bear and her cub feeding on a distant hillside. We were too far away to hear what went on, but Mama Griz swatted the whey out of her youngster. Her way of saying that when she spoke, it was the law.
It’s the mama’s right to make the rules and enforce their compliance. Most love their little ones and don’t want them hurt. I imagine that when a new mother deer hides her newborn in protective cover of high weeds, she somehow communicates that the adorable little fawn was to lie still until she returns. If she knew the story of the big bad wolf, she might even tell it to the spotted baby deer. Or maybe not. This is something that is absolute. It demands obedience – not explanations or fairy tales. It’s done out of love. And necessity.
Newborn fawns are said to be scentless. (Not senseless — but with little or no scent.) And with a camouflaged coat. I walked up on a hidden fawn one sunny day and almost stepped on it. Sunlight filtering through the weeds complimented the infant’s spots and made it hard to see. Nature did that on purpose. Coyotes, bobcats, and yes — domestic dogs — seek their prey by scent and sight. With no scent and effective camouflage, the little ones have a better chance of survival.
Hopefully, most readers know to leave any fawns alone that may APPEAR to be abandoned. Their doe-mothers placed them there as does do every year so they (the mothers) can get a little break from the duties of motherhood. They can be better mothers if they can get enough nutrition, and this year Nature has provided a cornucopia of nourishing vegetation. Does also probably need to take a break now and then.
Although a fawn may appear to be alone in the world, it’s probably not at all abandoned. If that weren’t the case, our annual fawn crops would be much lower.
Don’t interfere with Nature’s way of mothering! It’s doggone near perfect!
JJ
