It’s time to celebrate these beautiful little creatures that are being born right now! Did you know:
- A fawn weighs 4 to 8 pounds at birth; their weight doubles in 2 weeks.
- A fawn has a unique smell that the mother recognizes.
- A fawn spends its first month in hiding, separate from the doe, except to nurse 2 to 4 times a day.
- A healthy fawn can outrun you when it’s only days old.
- A fawn has about 300 white spots.
- 25% of twin fawns have different fathers.
- In a typical herd, twin fawns is the norm. In a prime habitat where the soil/feed/cover is outstanding, 20% to 30% of does might drop triplets. In a habitat with poor soils and feed, a doe is lucky to have and raise one fawn.
- It is not unheard of for a doe to have 2 buck fawns or 2 doe fawns, but by the end of fawning season things average out to about 50-50 doe and buck fawns in a herd.
- Predation (coyotes, bobcats, bears and dogs) is the number one cause of fawn mortality. Some 8% of a herd’s fawns die from natural causes like starvation, disease, hypothermia and drowning.
- On the flip and good side studies have shown that 55% of fawns in a herd typically survive.
