Please. Don’t be a fawn napper!
A doe will leave her baby tucked away while she forages for food. By keeping her distance she is helping safeguard her baby from predators.
So what should you do if you find a fawn? Keep your distance and just observe. A fawns natural instinct is to freeze in the hopes that any potential threat will go away. So if the fawn is laying there curled up, it’s doing what it’s supposed to be doing.
Please leave it be.
If you see any obvious signs of injury or the tips of the ears are curled (indicating dehydration) or if the fawn is wandering around crying loudly then you know something is wrong.
If you have any concerns perhaps take a picture and contact your local Wildlife rehabber like Owl’s Nest prior to disturbing the fawn.
The last thing you want to do is draw attention to the fawn which puts it at risk. Furthermore rehabbers are busy dealing with other animal emergencies on limited funds to raise a perfectly healthy fawn that would be better off raised by his/her mom.
Today we received a call from a local veterinary hospital. A well-meaning soul brought them this fawn because they thought he was orphaned since he was found all alone.
Long story short, our volunteer Kelly picked the fawn up from the vet and returned him back to where he was originally found to be happily reunited with mom.
Again, please, contact a wildlife rehabber for advice BEFORE “helping” a fawn.
