Jun

5

If you live in the Midwest, or many other regions of the country, you've probably noticed a lot more dead deer on the side of the road recently.

Twice a year deer/vehicle collisions spike. The most DVCs occur during the rut (the breeding season). This, of course, varies in different parts of the country. Check with your state conservation or wild life department when to expect this. In the Midwest, it occurs in November.

Approximately six months after the rut, DVCs spike again. This is the fawning season. Doe family groups, which usually live on a 200 - 500 acre home range, begin to disperse to fawning areas. The doe highest in dominance will take the best fawning ground and run off any other deer from that area. The best fawning ground is chosen based on the doe's order of dominance. Therefore, some does have to disperse from their home ranges to find more desirable fawning areas. Thus the increase in DVCs.

This habit of dispersing or running off of the less dominant does is actually an ingenious system of species preservation in that it spreads the fawns out over a wide area and thus makes it more difficult for predators find a concentration of fawns. Even when a doe gives birth to twins (which is fairly common in areas where the deer are healthy and have lots of nutritious food), the mother will separate her twins, thus decreasing the chances that a predator will find both.

Another great species preservation system is that most does will give birth within a week or two of each other. This is important because it puts a lot of fawns vulnerable to predators on the ground at the same time. This limits the amount of time that a predator can eat fawns as fawns quickly learn to elude them.

Another great defense mechanism that fawns have is that they are without scent when they are born. Therefore, predators cannot detect them by scent. The predator usually has to stumble upon them by accident. The mother deer will actually eat the afterbirth to remove the scent from the area. By the time the fawns develop a detectable odor they have developed coordination and strength to elude some or all predators.

This is also the time of year when people, while walking in the woods or grassy fields, find fawns lying by themselves and make the mistake of thinking that they are abandoned. This is almost certainly not the case! The mother (who has scent) actually leaves the fawn alone most of the time usually only returning so it can nurse.

Therefore, if you find a fawn leave it alone. Do not approach it, or touch it (you will leave your scent on it and believe me, animals will smell it). Feel free to look at it but do so from a distance. And as cute as they are don't stay too long as the mother will not approach if you are present.

But most important, be careful driving, especially in the Midwest, as it is fawning season!


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