It’s not every day you get to rescue a member of Bambi’s extended family. Police in Appleton, Wisconsin rescued an injured fawn this week and handed it over to wildlife experts to recover. The young white-tailed deer had hurt its leg, the department said in a Facebook post. The Appleton Police Department brought it to the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary in Green Bay, where it’s now being cared for.
The fawn is in good hands now. Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary, a longtime Green Bay facility, cares for injured and orphaned animals and works to return them to the wild. The leg injury made it clear the fawn needed help, one of the cases where stepping in is the right call — though this isn’t something just anyone should do.
This injury happened at the beginning of what’s called fawning season. White-tailed deer tend to give birth in May and June, and right now plenty of people are stumbling on tiny fawns curled up in yards, gardens, and tall grass. The instinct is to assume the animal is lost or abandoned, but in most cases it’s neither.
That distinction is the difference between a real rescue, like this one, and accidentally pulling a healthy fawn away from its mother. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources repeats the same reminder every summer, that a fawn lying still and quiet, with no obvious injuries, should simply be left alone. Knowing when a fawn needs help, and when it does not, can make all the difference for it.
Why Do Fawns End Up Alone?
A doe isn’t just abandoning her baby when she walks away from it. For the first few weeks of its life, a baby deer can’t run fast enough to escape its enemies. That’s why it stays put and stays hidden from potential predators. Mothers stay away on purpose to keep their scent from getting on their children.
She returns only a few times a day to nurse, so a fawn can sit on its own for hours. By around the Fourth of July, most fawns are strong enough to move around. Until then, a fawn resting by itself, even in a yard or near a house, is probably not injured and doesn’t need to be moved.
What Should You Do If You Find a Fawn?
If you come across a fawn that looks healthy, you should leave it where it is and just walk away. The mother likely won’t come back while you’re nearby. The one exception is a fawn in a dangerous spot, such as the middle of a road, which you can gently move a short distance to safety.
Call for help only when a fawn is clearly in trouble, like the one Appleton police found, with a visible injury, signs of illness, or a dead mother. In those cases, reach out to someone for help so you don’t unintentionally make things worse. That’s usually the best thing for the fawn and its mother in the long run.