5.28.2008

The front yard surprise

Yesterday morning, when walking Daru, I was surprised to find this fawn, Odocoileus virginianus, laying in the front yard near our driveway. (Our grass is about 4-5 inches high for a reference- yes it might need to be mowed =)!) I was more surprised that Daru didn't notice it when we walked by either time. After some reading, I learned that baby deer are almost odorless so Daru probably couldn't smell it even though she was 2 feet from it:

"When a suitable place of concealment is reached, the doe leaves her fawns and moves off perhaps 100 yards away. The fawns in their spotted coats are almost impossible to see and are almost odorless. The doe comes back five to eight times a day to nurse the young and then leaves again. She always remains somewhere in the area where she can see if danger approaches or can hear the little ones if they call to her. (http://www.bowhunting.net/NAspecies/whitetail3.htm)"

For more on white-tailed deer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_deer
For another cute picture of fawns from Rochester: http://rachelanddoug.blogspot.com/2006/08/oh-deer_01.html
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

How cute!

I guess you are right on the border of the wild... when your lawn offers free fawn babysitting services =)

Dawn said...

That fawn is so cute - and little! I have seen some small ones before, but not that small. That is really neat!

Anonymous said...

This is pretty sweet! What sort of heaven do you live in? You guys have all kinds of animals at your house. Need to check in for a visit I think.

Charles said...

Um...what happens if you shot bambi? Could you hang the skin from your fireplace?