Conservation Corner: July 30, 2001

Leave Fawns Alone
by James L. Cummins

Many Mississippians are concerned about wildlife will do what they can to protect and conserve them.

Recently, the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have been overwhelmed with calls from concerned citizens who want conservation officers or biologists to come get a deer fawn, baby duck, baby bird or baby rabbit they've found, only to become upset when they're told the young animal is probably okay and should be left alone.

Most people wouldn't go over to a table in a restaurant and pick up a kid, carry it home and then call the sheriff. The kid's mother or father are probably in the buffet line or not too far away. But many people will pick up a deer fawn. The deer's mother is usually feeding close by. This problem is not new to Mississippi or the Southeast. Every time late spring and summer come around, we get a new crop of fawns and other wildlife. The urge by many well-intentioned people is to pick these animals up and carry them home to raise and care for them.

In addition to it being illegal, to handle most native wildlife except during legal hunting seasons, newborn wild animals are almost never abandoned and should be left alone.

Every year during late spring and early summer, deer fawns are found by people in rural and suburban areas. Thinking the fawns have been abandoned by their mothers, some individuals take the fawns home with them to bottle feed and raise. They often end up calling the conservation officer or biologist for guidance about caring for the animal.

The fawn should be left where it is found. It is perfectly normal for the doe deer to leave her young fawn while she's off feeding nearby. The doe returns occasionally 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 fawns. I have walked up on fawns in the woods and fields on our farms in Montgomery and Webster counties.

Handling fawns is a problem. Anywhere you have deer you'll have this problem. All wildlife should be left in their natural environment. Trying to treat them as pets inevitably results in unfavorable consequences for the animal in question. Wildlife that loses its fear of humans often times poses a threat to people, as we have seen with alligators on Ross Barnett Reservoir and even in the City of Greenville.

It is illegal to keep wild animals in confinement except under specia> permitting procedures. It is best for all concerned to leave them in the wild. This is better for the animal in question and will help keep our wildlife "wild."

James L. Cummins is Executive Director of the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation in Stoneville, Mississippi. Known as "Wildlife Mississippi," the Foundation is a non-profit, conservation organization founded to conserve, restore and enhance fish, wildlife and plant resources throughout Mississippi.