Advice for Deer who are Worried

Question:  Help, I am a mother deer, I leave my fawn everyday while I go to eat, she is only a week old, and today I returned to feed her but she was gone. There is no blood, and I know my little fawn would not have left, what is the matter?

Signed, Doe the Deer

Dear Doe the Deer

You have every right to be worried, your young fawn has probably been taken by a person who thought she was abandoned. Hopefully the person will realize their mistake and return her where they found her. Mother deer, like yourself, often continue to look for their lost fawns for days. Sadly many people do not realize that mother deer regularly leave their fawns like this and the fawns are best left alone.

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Question:  Hi, I am a young fawn, and I am a little worried about being different than the other deer. My mother looks nothing like me, I have white spots, and she does not. Am I sick?

Signed, Little Spotty

Dear Little Spotty

No need to worry little fawn, the spots are for your protection. They make it harder for fawns like you to be seen in the woods. The word for this is camouflage, and to a predator you look like spots of sunlight shining through the trees, rather than a deer. Eventually your spots will grow into a solid pattern like your mother has, by then you will be stronger and faster to run away.

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Question:  Hello, I am a young buck, I have these things growing on my head, I guess they are called antlers. Anyhow I have been itching my antlers lately and one of them fell right off. It scared me, what is happening?

Signed, Buck

Dear Buck

No need to worry, this is normal for male deer. Antlers are different than horns, horns do not fall off, but antlers fall off every fall, or winter. This means you do wont have to carry around a huge set of antlers throughout the winter, but will have them for the rut - which is when mature male deer (bucks like yourself) compete to get does (female deer). In the spring you will quickly start to regrow another set of antlers which will be bigger than the set you had this year. That set of antlers will also fall off, and the cycle will continue.

Further Reading on Wild Deer

How to Rescue an Abandoned Fawn

How and Why Deer Shed their Antlers

Learn how People are trying to Keep Deer out of a Garden