Fawns are better left untouched

A fawn's best chance of survival is to remain in the wild.

With the start of the peak fawning season in North Carolina, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission is once again urging people not to approach, touch or remove any white-tailed fawns.

During May and June, people see fawns left alone and assume they have been abandoned by the doe. But whitetails are a "hider" species, meaning the

female will conceal her fawn in vegetation during

the first two or three weeks of its life while she

feeds.

Dappled and lacking scent, fawns are well-camouflaged and usually remain undetected by predators. The doe returns to the fawn several times a day to nurse and clean it, staying only a few minutes each time before leaving again to seek food.

But fawns are far from helpless. By the time a fawn is five days old it can outrun a human. At three to six weeks of age, it can escape most predators. Although they may continue to nurse for another four to six months, fawns are functionally weaned by about 10 weeks, eating vegetation and other browse.

Unless a fawn is in imminent danger - suffering an injury, for example, or being attacked by dogs - the best decision is to leave it alone. If you are concerned about the fawn, leave the area and check back the next day. If the fawn is in the same location when you return the following day and is bleating loudly, or if a fawn is lying beside a dead doe (usually at the side of a roadway), do not take the fawn into possession. Instead, contact the Wildlife Resources Commission at (919) 707-0040 for the telephone number of a local permitted fawn rehabilitator.

It is both illegal and biologically irresponsible to remove a fawn from the wild. Only fawn rehabilitators permitted by the Commission may keep white-tailed fawns in captivity for eventual release. With the exception of trained wildlife rehabilitators, most people are ill-equipped to care for a fawn, so their attempts to save an abandoned fawn typically do more harm than good.