Last Sunday we caught sight of a deer near the garden--nothing unusual there. But then Jim noticed a fawn--a very, very small fawn, possibly newly born. He opened the door to get a photo and the mother ran off. He was confident she'd return, so he ventured out to get a look at the baby.
Here's the fawn, very unsteady on its feet.
As soon as Jim moved toward the fawn, it would lie down and stay motionless. That's a self-protective measure; the fawn stays as hidden as possible and moves not at all so as not to give its position away to a possible predator.
Here's the fawn lying in tall grass and sheep sorrel:
We began to be concerned when, after three hours, the doe had not returned. At a loss as to the right course of action, we naturally turned to the Internet. Michigan's Department of Natural Resources had the advice we needed: leave wildlife in the wild.
If you wish to obey the law, note the location, but leave the animal where it is. If you have reason to believe the mother has been killed, return the next day, and if the youngster is still there and appears weakened, contact the nearest DNR office.
"This time of year it’s fairly common to come across young animals in the wild and sometimes it appears these wildlife babies are abandoned or orphaned," said Doug Reeves, DNR wildlife biologist. "In almost all circumstances that is not the case."
A doe may leave her fawn for up to eight hours. While we felt somewhat relieved by the DNR's information, we still found ourselves anxiously watching from the windows, checking to see whether the fawn was still there and looking for the doe.
But eventually we became occupied with getting ready to go to a holiday barbecue, and during that time the mother returned for her offspring, because when we went out to see the fawn one more time, it was gone. We enjoyed our little visitor and felt we'd been given a gift--a feeling we experience often out here.
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