For the first
few weeks of life, fawn deer are well camouflaged and almost odorless. Given these traits, they instinctively lie
motionless on the ground if spooked or in the vicinity of a predator. I have approached within three feet of a fawn
in this state.
After a few weeks,
fawns replace this defense strategy with a polar opposite one: panicked flights to safety
when feeling threatened.
Yesterday, I
learned what really spooks this highly mobile type of fawn. Apparently, the sounds of construction are
not of much concern to fawn mule deer, but the sight of a certain Mitch Hegman initiates
wholesale panic.
After working
on a few of my sunroom’s framing details for a couple hours (running a skill
saw, hammering, operating a drill), I stepped around the corner of my house,
less than ten feet away from my work, and found twin mule deer fawns bedded
down alongside the house.
While the
noise I made when framing had not troubled the fawns, one sight of me caused
what can only be described as a fawn deer explosion. One of the twins jumped away to the
north. The other bounced off to the south
and stopped at a distance to evaluate me before a final flight away.
I managed a photograph with my smartphone before the fawn veered away.
A Fawn Deer Pausing
After Bouncing Away from Me
—Mitchell Hegman
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