my old country house

TEN THINGS TO DO (AND NOT DO) IF YOU FIND A BABY DEER

I AM IN MY HAPPY MONDAY PLACE –

NEW YORK CITY!!!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE NEW YORK!!!! ANY chance I can get up here I take it! I moved my son up here this weekend, he has an incredible summer internship – he is a smarty! I am so proud.

I took him to his VERY FIRST Broadway show last night!!!

SPONGE BOB SQUAREPANTS 

 

MARK MY WORDS!!! This show is GONNA sweep the Tony’s next week – I was VERY VERY Skeptical. I mean I am a “stage-trained Actor”! I’ve done (albeit – he rolled over in his grave and cried) Shakespeare! I studied REAL theatre – spelled the fancy way! I performed in musicals by the masters like like Sondheim and Prince. But I am telling you – THIS SHOW blew me away. It is INCREDIBLE! Every single aspect is brilliant. and My face hurt from smiling and my hands hurt from clapping! I am back in NYC the end of this month with my BFF and I am buying us tickets TODAY before everyone realizes that this could be the next Hamilton!!!! (okay maybe that is a leap – BUT it is seriously amazing!)

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EVERY YEAR around this time – hundreds of baby deer are “found” and many are “rescued” unnessessarily.

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RUPERT – Photo by Jeff Moore.

Once….I FOUND A BABY DEER. NO,  NOT the deer above, the baby deer above is a deer named “Rupert” that was delivered via c section, 3 weeks early, after his Mother was hit by a car.

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This photo is so you can see how TINY the deer was that I saw.

No...This is how I came to see a baby deer:

I was driving down the street, and saw, what I thought was a cat come out of the tall grass near the side of the road. Except, as I got closer…what I saw was standing right at he edge of the road, was the tiniest baby deer I had ever seen..like the size of a toy stuffed deer…he was so very tiny and wobbly…I immediately stopped. And all kinds of things ran through my head…

“Where is his Momma?”

“Is she the deer I saw get hit the other night?”

“Are we going to have a baby deer for a pet?”

“What should I name him?”

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My “Fantasy” Pet…I could name him…”Bambi?” from: Thingsmakemehappy.tumblr.com

Slowly…..I stepped out of the car, and he just stood there…like a deer NOT in the headlights…just stunned and probably too tiny to even know what to do…slowly..very slowly…like still photographs connected into one movement..he began to turn away…and then he stumbled back  into the tall grass. and disappeared….Instinct told me to leave him alone….and so that is exactly what I did.

Fast forward to Later that same day, when the kids got home from school, I said “GUESS what I saw…11″ and then….”Lets go see if MY baby deer is still there!!!”

But first…Phoebe did some googling, to find out how we should proceed and what we learned was fascinating…and stopped us in our tracks…

TEN IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT BABY DEER

  1. BABY DEER ARE BORN IN THE LATE SPRING. The AVERAGE FAWN HAS 294-306 SPOTS!

Baby deer are born in the late Spring, when the weather is milder.

2. BABY DEER ARE BORN WITH NO SCENT

When they are born, they have NO scent. NONE. This lack of a SCENT is highly protective from predators….because

3. ALL OF THEIR PREDATORS –  INCLUDING US – HAVE POOR NIGHT VISION.

ALL of their predators have poor vision and see only in black and white and rely on scent to find their prey.

4. MOMMA DEER DOES HAVE SCENT.

The Mommy deer DO have a scent ….they have the babies and then leave them, and ONLY come back to feed them and even consume their waste, as it has nutritive components for the new Mother.

5. THE JOB OF A BABY DEER IS TO SLEEP AND GROW AND GET STRONG ENOUGH TO THRIVE ON THEIR OWN.

The babies mostly sleep and grow. This goes on for weeks, until the babies grow strong enough to keep up and run away from their prey..

 6. DO NOT TOUCH A BABY DEER IF YOU SEE ONE –

SO IF YOU see a baby deer, ABSOLUTELY DO NOT TOUCH IT!

 7. YOUR SCENT CAN BE A DEATH SENTENCE FOR A BABY DEER.

Not unless you know for certain the mother is not coming back. YOUR scent will alert predators and be a death sentence for the deer.

BABY DEER HAVE NO SCENT WHEN THEY ARE BORN AND THE MAMMA MAKES EVERY EFFORT TO PROTECT THEM BY NOT LEAVING HER SCENT ON THEM.

8.  IF YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO TOUCH THE DEER, SAY IF IT IS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD AND IN DANGER – WEAR GLOVES TO PROTECT IT FROM YOUR SCENT.

A WILDLIFE RESCUE WORKER NURSES BABY DEER!

9.  IF, AFTER A FEW DAYS – THE BABY DEER IS STILL WHERE YOU LEFT IT- AND CRYING THEN TAKE IT TO A WILDLIFE CENTER

One article said if you see a baby, leave it, and come back to the spot the next day..if you come back and the baby is crying, then probably the mother is not coming back and you can take the baby to the proper wildlife refuge…otherwise…let nature do her thing…

10. BABY DEER ARE INCREDIBLY PRECIOUS AND SO CUTE BUT THEY DO NOT MAKE GOOD HOUSE PETS.

 

BABY DEER AND A KITTEN – THIS IS A VERY SWEET YOU-TUBE VIDEO – I HOPE THE DEER FOUND A SAFE HOME ONCE IT WAS GROWN.

BABY deer grow to BE big big deer. AND yes, they can be domesticated and learn to live side by side with your family and your pets. I am sure we have all seen adorable examples of this, like the video above of the deer and the cat – on Instagram and Facebook. It is so sweet to watch deer and dogs playing happily together. BUT – eventually – they grow up and they have BIG deer instincts hard-wired into their DNA. They are not violent animals but if threatened Deer can kick and hurt you or your animals very badly. They do not fit very well on the sofa. They are better left to be outside animals and if you do save one – and you HAve no wildlife refuge available – try to encourage it to go back into the wild once it is strong enough to survive.

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I was sad to find out that Rupert,  the tiny deer above, did not survive…he was just too tiny. But a few weeks after I spotted my baby deer, I saw my him with his Momma, hanging out in the tall grass, playing with the lightening bugs in the warm summer evening air…

Hmmm.learn something new everyday!!!

So the good news is that most tiny deer you see are just fine. This is the way it is supposed to be. They sleep and Mama goes out, nourishes herself and them comes back to nurse them and removes all waste and signs and smells that could alert predators.

NATURE IS AMAZING!!!!

 

7 thoughts on “TEN THINGS TO DO (AND NOT DO) IF YOU FIND A BABY DEER

  1. Lesli! My family and I are planning a trip to New York in August and I just bought tickets to SpongeBob! Thanks for the hot tip! We are also seeing a couple of others. Can’t wait!

    1. I am so happy you got tickets. I am going to NYC in a few weeks with my best friend and our daughters and I got 4 tickets to SB – can’t wait to see it again!

  2. So happy the baby deer you found is with his momma. I live in CT and see a lot of deer in my neighborhood, so thanks for the info on what to do and what not to do if I see a baby deer.

  3. Hey Lesli!

    Thanks for this wonderful post and these beautiful babies!

    I am your neighbor in Midlothian Va and the last weeks my husband and I have been on turtle saving watch—have you noticed how many turtles are crossing our roads? When we see them preparing to cross, we find a safe place to park and to run back (watching traffic) to get them off road and pointed in the opposite direction (I don’t think they have a specific plan—just need to be safe). If you find a wounded or orphaned animal, the prefer place to go is: https://www.dgif.virginia.gov/wildlife/injured/rehabilitators/

    The State of Virginia has a website listing of specialized wildlife rehabilitation specialists–you can search the url above by county to locate these dedicated people by their specialization (birds, turtles, snakes, etc).

    We found a large snapping turtle who had been hit trying to cross a busy street. The lovely rehab specialist we called advised us to keep the turtle quiet and in a dark cool space overnight (in a box in our garage) and then take her to a wonderful vet practice who would see to her first aid. I say she, because indeed she began to lay her eggs…

    The Vet Hospital (Wellesley Animal Hospital in Short Pump, bless them) gave her antibiotics and fluids, and turned her over to the care of the specialist.

    We named her Lillian Hellman. She is doing well…

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