Interesting story involving the buck I call Split Ear.
Morning actually started with my wife yelling to me as I dressed for work that she was seeing five deer cross our yard about 150 yards from the front door. One of the deer she'd spotted was Split Ear who tempted me regularly with visits to our place last year after I gave him a year to grow on. While the other bucks in the bachelor group my wife spotted kept walking away from the house, I noticed Split Ear's attention seemed focused on the house. As he crossed the yard he twice stopped and stood statue still intently looking towards me.
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Only after he moved on did I notice that in the space between us a doe was tending to a newborn fawn, and quite possibly Split Ear's own offspring.
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She licked her newborn fawn for a while, allowed the fawn to stand and nurse, and only after letting it feed for several minutes did she move a few feet away, forcing the fawn to take several stiff, gawky steps towards her.
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After nursing and walking a bit I noticed that the fawn was taking an increased interest in its surroundings.
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The game of the fawn feeding a bit then being encouraged to walk went on for about 15 minutes until we finally had to start up our car to head into town for work. The doe, having nearly reached a tree line along our front field stood still as we drove by, willing to wait out our departure where normally she would have hopped into cover.
Between the threat posed by coyotes, bobcats, and large boars in our area, the fawn faces a number of precarious days ahead. In fact, the threat the predators pose likely played a part in the doe's willingly giving birth so close to the house -- using the proximity as a bit of a shield against more leery predators. Actually had the same exact thing happen (doe giving birth close to the house) 23 months ago within about 50 yards or so of the same spot. Hate to wish ill on another prey species, but to date this has been somewhat "The Year of the Rabbit", likely due to my pulling limbs blown down by Hurricanes Hermine, Irma, and Michael into brush piles just inside our wood line. Regardless, the herd population is high enough I know the local fawn recruitment rate will suffice... but just can't help but pull for the little boogers after you see them!