If You Care, Leave Them There: CDFW Urges Public to Leave Deer Fawns Alone
![Fawns [Photo from the Department of Fish and Wildlife]](https://kymkemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/avu-2018-027-651.jpg)
[Photo from the Department of Fish and Wildlife]
Late spring and early summer is the peak time for California’s deer herds to give birth to fawns, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is issuing a reminder to well-intentioned people to not interact with the baby deer – even if they find one that appears to be abandoned.
Adult female deer often stash their fawns in tall grass or brush for many hours while they are out foraging for food.
“It is a very common mistake to believe a fawn has been abandoned when it’s found alone, even if the mother has not been seen in the area for a long period of time,” said Joe Croteau, environmental program manager with CDFW’s Northern Region. “It’s actually a survival strategy for the doe to separate from her fawns so as not to attract predators to the whereabouts of her young.”
Each year, CDFW and wildlife rehabilitation facilities are called to assist with fawns that have been removed from the wild by concerned members of the public recreating outdoors. With limited long-term placement options in zoos or other wildlife sanctuaries, the animals often have to be euthanized since they lack the survival skills to be released back into the wild and can become dangerous and difficult to keep as they become bigger.
To report an injured, sick or suspected orphaned fawn, contact your local CDFW regional office directly.
Anyone who removes a young animal from the wild is required to notify CDFW or take the animal to a permitted wildlife rehabilitator within 48 hours. Only a limited number of wildlife rehabilitation facilities are licensed to accept fawns.
It is both illegal to feed deer and keep deer in your personal possession. Both crimes are misdemeanors, each subject to penalties of up to $1,000 and/or six months in jail. Learn more about the dangers and consequences of feeding deer in this CDFW video.
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That’s right, if you rescue an abandoned or hurt Fawn you’re obligated to take it to CDWF so they can euthanize it… 🤔
Call Mendocino wildlife rescue.. don’t take it anywhere else. You can google the info and keep the number in your contacts. They also take any other injured or orphaned wildlife and transport to the appropriate facility. MCWR transports the fawns to Sonoma to be raised and eventually released.. they never euthanize! Fawns should be left if found in a wooded area.. but if they are walking around crying out, or looking weak that means something happened to the mom most likely.. humans are encroaching and ruining habitat for all wildlife. So its important to allow a Doe find its dawn whenever possible. I’f you see a dead doe with fawns on a Roadway please stop and get the fawns! It will be very common now and in the months to come.. most of the time mom will try to cross the road first and will be the first one hit. Many times fawns are left to starve. If they still have spots they can’t usually survive on their own.
If CDFW cared about the deer in California they would open up mountain lion hunting at some level. What is occurring now is ridiculous with the mountain lion population surging, it is only a matter of time until someone’s child in a backyard playing in rural area is dragged away.
CDFW don’t care about the deer otherwise they would be doing something proactive against this issue, as well as the bears (no hounds anymore), the mega grows with dogs running loose (killing fawns, chasing deer), and the growers themselves killing deer and fawns illegally (recent post about this).
All the while the hunting license and tag prices go up every year!!!
The HWY takes the deer… just drive along 101 you will see dead deer everywhere. Hunting mountain??? Really??? Makes no sense. Humans are the reason animals are struggling to survive. And I agree about the dogs.. as well as the growers.. but I think your 💯 wrong about the bears and mountain lions. It’s rare for a bear to kill a deer. Yes mountain lions do. But realistically for every deer a mountain lion kills I bet 100 get hit by cars. So really, cars are deers biggest killers.
Guest, I agree with the highway death rate, very high. But on the bear and mountain lion issue….hunting mountain lions does make sense, complete scientific/wildlife sense anyway. Mountain lions kill deer, like it or not humans are here and we are doing our best (yep I know not the greatest) at keeping wildlife. Mountain lions have a place, just not in peoples backyards, for safety sake. When mountain lions were hunted they gained a fear of humans, now not so.
In addition, bears do kill deer but not as many as lions. Something that is also occurring out there, is that bears will find mountain lion kills and take them, thus requiring mountain lions to kill again. This is happening more and more as the bear population is also increasing. When CDFW outlawed the taking of bears with the use of dogs it greatly impacted the amount of bears that are taken per year.
I think bears mountain lions and every other animal is struggling greatly. Think of how many were wiped out with these massive wildfires? So this is probably some of the reason wildlife is coming down into towns. If they were thriving I don’t believe we would be seeing them around humans.
Bears will kill and eat very young fawns whenever they can. That’s OK, it’s life in the food chain.
The last few years I’ve been pointing out the year by year rise in tag prices to the person at the CDFW office when I buy mine. Then with a straight face I ask them if they know if there is a plan for the prices to drop at all next year. They give me a shitty look and say no.
I think the mountain lion in our neighborhood got 3 fawns last year. They disappear one by one and I find a little bit of skin and a few bones. The neighbors found a fawn head laying in their driveway. I’ve been 25 feet from the cat, its a big one!
I think the CDFW should put animal overpasses above Hwy 101 so less things get killed along the roadways. They’ve made alot of money over the last few years with those 1600 permits.
Excellent comment Redwood Dan! I have wondered the same thing….why do our hunting permits and tags increase every year, yes literally every year they go up, and there is no management occurring for the species that we are hunting?
This is troubling to say the least, and more so when mountain lion hunting has been outlawed and bears are no longer hunted with dogs. They are increasing the amount of predators and thus decreasing the amount of deer, thus decreasing our chances for a successful hunt.
Sounds like a good way to eliminate your job CDFW!
Limited hunting of mountain lions is about due. When a few are they’re hunted they all generally avoid people. Very smart animals. I think they’re at the point they don’t remember hunting anymore.
I helped lobby to exclude lions from hunting years ago, but the population has expanded and they’re no longer all that shy in places. I’d guess as many are shot by S.S.S. as used to be by hunting. Can’t blame people for that in cases where they stalk kids. Which I’ve heard of several times.
I have encountered a few “hidden fawns” through the years, I just can’t help but watch them for a while, They are so darn cute. They splay out flat on the ground and the don’t even blink. it is said that they don’t have any odor and dogs can’t smell them. ( I don’t believe that )
This time of the year is a lot of fun for me. I love seeing all the critter babies. I still marvel at the baby quail that can fly when they are not much bigger than a bumble bee.
I haven’t heard that fawns are odorless, but I know the does go through great care to hide the fawns.
Does will eat the scat of the fawns to cover the tracks, also, as the article states, the moms will normally not sleep next to the fawns – in order to not bring attention to them.
I totally agree with you. Loved it when mama’s left their fawns in my yard for hours. Fascinating to watch. Usually 2 of them and fun to see whose the dominant one.
707-984-6363 this is the number for Mendocino county wildlife rescue they never euthanize . Call them before calling fish and game.
Fawns are cute and appeal to many folks that want to pick them up. Please don’t. You will leave your body odor on the fawn, and when the mother comes back, more times than not she will reject the fawn. They have enough problems staying alive from bobcats, coyotes, mountain lions, bears, etc. Teach your children about all our wonderful wildlife in Humboldt and other counties. Tell them to look and watch the animal(s), but never try to approach or touch. Mama bears are real protective of their cubs, and come at you extremely fast if they think it is necessary.
This time of year every pile of bear ,mountain lion,and bobcat scat have fawn and grown deer hair in it. Now protecting wolves???? WTF! They need some real hunters to start counting and regulating the predator populations! Cdfw does not care at all!
Are you really an animal lover??? Bullshit. Think of how much wildlife is gone forever because of humans. Do you want fur trappers to be legal again too? Of course mountain lion poop has hair in it. It’s call the food chain! Doesn’t mean we need to go back to the fucked up old days of hunters and trappers!
The global rate of extinction is drastically on the rise. Due to humans and climate change.. logging mining ECT. Why should we go back the other way and bring hunting of bears and mountain lions back just to save some deer??? Why not do what we can to stop killing deer and other animals on the highway everyday. Educate yourselves on the Extinction of multiple species that HUMANS have caused. Do you really want to see these animals hunted again? We have a couple wolf packs being protected.. let’s go shoot them! Really???? How stupid can people be.. you would really shoot a bear just because it might eat a deer or 2? Not worth it. Ca is burning and everything wild is suffering.. I’m sure the fires have taken out Many of the animals you want to hunt.. no way should more permits be giving out. Do you agree with killing The monkeys in the rain forest so it can be turned into farm land too?