Early Days In The Lives of White-tailed Deer Fawns

While out at Dunby rd section of the Bruce Trail with the Earth Tracks tracking apprenticeship, I was walking slowly under some White Pines (Pinus strobus) looking for owl pellets. We had found some in that same spot a couple years before and I was hoping to find some again. At one point I lifted my foot to take a step when there was a sudden movement directly under where my foot was about to land. Something large and pale brown jostled about and I quickly called out and stumbled back. It took me half a second to realize that the large pale brown shape that was moving away from me was a White-tailed Deer fawn (Odocoileus virginianus). I started looking around quickly, out to my tracking companions and rapidly back to the fawn. I was awestruck and needed to see if anyone else had seen the fawn. Eventually someone else saw the young deer and we managed to get everyone’s attention. Some folks even crept up to the fawn’s new hiding spot and got a couple photos. I tried climbing a nearby tree in hopes to get a better view without disturbing the newborn, but the young deer took off through a fence and up a hill by the time I was stable enough in the tree to turn around.

For those who are new to all of this, a fawn is generally used these days to imply a young deer of any deer species. The word originates from the Latin fetus, which you probably recognize to mean something akin to offspring or new life. The word transformed from the Latin into Old French and Anglo-French faon or feon meaning a young animal of any kind, then on to Modern English, as fawn. But since around the 15th century the word fawn has typically implied a young deer.

Does (female deer) gestation period is about 200 days giving birth in May or June depending on her mating success in the Autumn of the year before. When the doe is pregnant for the first time she will likely give birth to a single fawn but in subsequent years she will likely give birth to twins. A female deer has In writing this post I learned that in some populations of White-tails, up to 22% of twins will have two different fathers. Multiple paternity, the fathering of individuals within a single litter, is also known in other species as well such as Deer Mice (Peromyscus maniculatus), Black Bears (Ursus americanus) and Opossums (Didelphis virginiana). I have heard about it for some birds, but I don’t remember where from. It’s pretty cool. I found a blog post from the blog Backyard Biology and I am just going to pull a quote from them as they wrote it up so succinctly.

Unlike humans, deer have a two-horned uterus, and typically, each ovary contributes an egg which is fertilized in one of the horns, giving rise to an embryo that develops in that horn — thus, most twin fawns are likely fraternal. The incidence of identical twins is very small, as it is in humans.

However, that doesn’t mean that they are full brothers, the result of eggs fertilized by the same sperm.  Using a molecular genetic analysis, studies on deer herds in Michigan found that 22-26% of twin fawns actually had different fathers (the percentage is higher in penned deer herds than free-ranging), and that the largest, oldest bucks in the herd do not always father all of the offspring. In these herds, 18% of yearlings, and 50% of 2 year-old bucks were also successful in fathering offspring.

I love when we find examples in the world that counter the paradigms humans cling to as a supposed baseline. Go Nature!

Just before the pregnant doe is ready to give birth, the yearling young from the previous Spring will be driven away so the doe can give birth in seclusion. This behaviour is possible done as an attempt to ensure proper imprinting on mom instead of some other deer who may not be so inclined to care for the new fawns.
She’ll find a spot and lay down, get up and pace, lay down again, pace, until the babies are ready to come. I have read in two texts that White-tail moms can have a labour of a half hour, or over 12 hours. That is a huge disparity. I am unsure still about how long the labour of a White-tail is but I am wondering if there was something else implied. Perhaps the labour, the whole process, takes about 12 hours, but the actual birthing is over in about a half hour? That would explain those vastly different accounts.

When the fawns are born they may weigh between 1.8 – 4.5 kg. Twins are generally smaller than singletons, and males are usually slightly heavier than females. They are born with three or four cheek teeth. The third premolar, called P3, has three cusps (those spikey points at the tops of the teeth). If a fourth tooth is present, it is the first molar, M1. A fifth tooth, M2, will emerge within six months of birth, and a sixth tooth, another molar, M3, will emerge before reaching 1.5 years old. If you come across a White-tailed mandible with less than six teeth, it was from a fawn.

Mary Holland writes in her book “Naturally Curious” that mother deer will consume all of the afterbirth and fetal membranes. She then licks the fawn, head to toe, focusing on the anus, to remove any scent and likely as part of a bonding process between mother and fawn. With all of the afterbirth gone and the coat revealed, fawns of White-tails can be seen with a beautiful chestnut brown on their upper back which fades to a pale, almost orangey brown and finally to white at their belly. According to my research it seems like hairs which make up these white spots are only white at the tips of the individual hairs, while they are the same reddish chestnut brown found on the rest of their Summer pelage. The white tips wear away by the end of Summer and the fawns coats appear similar to adults. All of this is dappled with white spots. Despite these bright beautiful colours the fawns are amazing at hiding amidst tall green grasses and forbs.

Newborn fawns spend a good chunk of their early life curled up in their beds though they can walk within minutes of being born. Leonard Lee Rue writes that it is up to 96% of the time, though this is interspersed with getting up and finding a new bed, up to 6 times a day. He writes that they don’t usually go more than 6 m (20 ft) away from their previous bed when settling into a new one. The twin fawns don’t bed together. In fact the doe will keep them separate intentionally, likely to ensure their survival in case one of the fawns is taken by a predator such as a Coyotes (Canis latrans). If a week old fawn is disturbed they can readily run to try and evade a predator, but the newborns are often quick to drop when a predator comes close.

About 7 years ago during an apprenticeship outing, at on the beach of Lake Huron at Saugeen First Nation territory, I came across a fawn track in the mud on a small peninsula out into the water. The track was approximately 3 cm (just over 1⅛ in). I have included the photo below.

The fawns can stand and may begin to nurse very shortly after their births. They are nursed by the doe between 4 – 6 times a day at around 4 – 10 minutes a turn. Shortly after birth they drink about 60 – 118 ml of milk every four hours. By the time they are a week old, the fawns are drinking nearly 900 ml a day. Deer milk is richer than the milk of domestic cattle (Bos taurus). For deer on Turtle Island/North America, milk protein averages at about 7 or 8 % compared to the 3.5% in domestic cows. This is incredible and I wonder at the difference in food sources that nourish the deer versus the domesticated feed which we give cattle? Would wild cattle have better milk if they ate different food? Are they malnourished? A sign that a fawn is malnourished is when their ears become slightly twisted. But it seems like as soon as they fawns are eating well again, their ears will straighten out. A good sign to look for when encountering a fawn in the future. Fawns will start eating green vegetation at around three weeks of age, and are weaned by about four months.

I have had the chance to see a couple of fawns in my life, all by chance. It is such a gift to be able to see the young of another animal in their natural habitats doing whatever it is the young of the species are supposed to be doing. I am always grateful for the experiences we get on these tracking outings and for all the amazing wildlife encounters we have while we’re out. Thanks to all who were out with us there, including the humans, the deer, and everyone else.

To learn more :
Natural History of Canadian Mammals by Donna Naughton. Canadian Museum of Nature and University of Toronto Press, 2012.
Paternity Assignment for White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus): Mating across Age Classes and Multiple Paternity by Anna Bess Sorin. Journal of Mammalogy, Volume 85, Issue 2, 12 April 2004.
Deer (The Wildlife Series, Book 3) edited by Duane Gerlach, Sally Atwater & Judith Schnell. Stackpole Books, 1995.
The Deer of North America by Leonard Lee Rue III. Lyons Press, 1997.