Mount Vernon Optic-Herald

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game biologists  and local Game Warden Doyle Brown are asking citizens to leave deer fawn and other newborn wildlife alone. Each year, mid-April through May in Franklin County, TxPWD officials are inundated with calls from concerned folks who have found a fawn and believe it has been abandoned, says Game Warden Brown. “With the development around lakes and other rural areas, we humans have encroached on the wildlife with new houses, and businesses,” said Game Warden Brown. “A lot of wildlife habitat loss has taken place.”
This wildlife concern occurs frequently in housing developments around Lake Cypress Springs. These well-intended individuals pick up the fawns and either take them home or call us.
Deer fawns should be left where they are found, according to Warden Brown. It is normal for the doe to be off feeding, leaving her young in grassy, weedy areas or nestled in thick leaves until she returns. Usually the doe leaves to feed and returns within four to six hours to check on the fawn and allow it to nurse.
Because of the fawn’s natural instinct to lie still at this early age, people are able to walk right up to the hiding animal. Observation of the fawn should be done from a distance, since being too close can keep the mother away, advises Warden Brown. Never allow kids to pet the fawn, because once it is tainted by human scent the mothers do often abandon their young. For more information, see the April 7 edition of the Mount Vernon Optic-Herald.