Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Fawns rarely need to be rescued
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
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It's the peak of fawning season in Virginia.
Which mean phones are ringing off the hook at the Wildlife Center of Virginia and at Department of Game and Inland Fisheries offices.
"I can't even guess how many calls we get every day," said Nelson Lafon, co-manager of the DGIF's deer program.
Calls like the one that came into Lafon's office in Verona on Monday morning.
"A guy had brought a fawn into his garage," Lafon said. "He thought he would keep in there and maybe the mother would come back for it."
The mother will probably come back for it, but only because DGIF officials helped the man return the animal to the woods.
This one turned out the way it should because at least the guy called. When would-be rescuers call they learn from experts that fewer than 10 percent of fawns assumed to be orphaned really need help.
While feeding, female deer often leave their fawns for extended periods. Curled up in cover, the fawns are far less susceptible to predators than they would be if they were continually following their mother.
The mother deer regularly return to check on and feed their fawns. Sometimes they move them. Sometimes not.
Often, the female deer will be less than a quarter of a mile away, Lafon said.
Nearly always, if a found fawn is left alone, its mother will return and the animals will be on their way.
Too often, humans intervene.
Thinking the fawn has been orphaned they take matters into their own hands, literally.
"It would be so much easier of these things were ugly and smelled bad," said Ed Clark, president of the Wildlife Center.
Often, the would-be rescuers try to care for the animal.
And that's not easy. Fawns will often react violently to cow's milk.
"When it's really good and sick, and it's too late to put it back with its mother, that's when they bring them to us," Clark said.
Not only are such rescues dangerous to the deer, they're also against the law. It's illegal to raise a wild animal in captivity without a permit.
Fawns that end up with licensed rehabilitators -- Clark said he estimates that the Wildlife Center will care for about 50 fawns this season -- have a better chance.
Better, but not good.
More than 50 percent of fawns that end up at rehab facilities die before they can be released.
Of those that do live to be released, few survive their first year in the wild. Despite the best efforts of rehabilitators, the animals are simply ill-equipped for the perils of the wild, be they dogs, coyotes, cars or hunters.
Rehabbing deer is expensive and difficult.
"They're not like rabbits that don't need much encouragement to learn to go off and become rabbits," Clark said.
Every fawn that's in a rehab facility but doesn't need to be is using up resources that could be helping animals that really need help.
What about those rare instances when a fawn raised illegally by a regular citizen actually does survive? Those cases also can have bad endings.
Having lost their fear of humans, deer can become dangerous, especially bucks during the mating season. They can and have killed humans.
If authorities learn of a deer raised in captivity, they have few options. Such deer are not released into the wild. And, in part because of concerns about diseases, DGIF authorities are currently reluctant to transfer deer to zoos.
"In most cases, the animal will have to be euthanized," Lafon said.
So how does someone know whether or not a fawn really needs to be rescued?
Contact the experts.
Callers to the Wildlife Center or DGIF regional offices will get a couple of questions.
Is the fawn obviously injured? Is its mother obviously dead?
If so, it may need to be rescued. But that's a call to be made by the experts.
If not -- and, again, Clark said that's the case with more than 90 percent of the calls to his office -- the advice will be to leave the animal alone.
As long as not much time has passed, a wrongly rescued fawn can be returned to the woods and the mother will usually return, contrary to the myth that does will abandon fawns contaminated by human scent.
Would-be fawn rescuers usually want what's best for the animal.
In all but rare cases, the best action is no action at all.
If you find a wild bird or animal that is orphaned or injured, immediately call DGIF dispatch at (804) 367-1258 or the Wildlife Center of Virginia at (540) 942-9453. For more information, visit wildlifecenter.org.
