Spring and early summer are prime times to spot local wildlife, including deer. But many people who come across a young fawn alone in a yard, driveway or other open area often wonder whether the animal has been abandoned.<\/p>\n
Wildlife experts say that in most cases, the answer is no.<\/p>\n
Social media feeds are filled with photos and videos of fawns found alone, prompting questions about whether people should intervene.<\/p>\n
Sydney Glisan, director of wildlife rehabilitation at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, said the best thing to do is usually nothing at all.<\/p>\n
Even if a fawn appears to be alone or is sitting in an inconvenient location, Glisan said people should keep their distance.<\/p>\n
“Humans may be safe for them to be around, but we pose a threat of stressing them out so badly to the point they pass away,” Glisan said.<\/p>\n
According to Glisan, mother deer commonly leave their fawns in a safe location while they forage for food.<\/p>\n
“She leaves no scent in an open spot. She’ll go forage for food. She is big and can be noticed. This way won’t alert predators to the area,” Glisan said.<\/p>\n
Young fawns are often not strong enough to follow their mothers for long distances.<\/p>\n
“When they are young, they are not strong enough to follow mom the whole way,” Glisan said.<\/p>\n
What may appear to be abandonment is often part of a mother’s strategy to protect her young. Glisan said deer frequently leave fawns in areas near people because there are often fewer predators.<\/p>\n
“Mom has a unique way to care. Leave the deer [in a] safe spot in a backyard near people because less predators there,” Glisan said.<\/p>\n
Glisan said wildlife rehabilitation centers regularly receive fawns brought in by well-meaning people who assume they have been abandoned. In most cases, she said, the mother will return later, often around dusk or dawn.<\/p>\n
“That’s the attitude I wish all had \u2014 let wild things live in the wild,” Glisan said.<\/p>\n
If you believe an animal is sick, injured or in immediate danger, experts recommend contacting a wildlife rehabilitation center. Even then, they advise keeping your distance whenever possible.<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC Philadelphia. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC Philadelphia journalist edited the article for publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spring and early summer are prime times to spot local wildlife, including deer. But many people who come…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2600,17685,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-218493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-animals","tag-animals-and-wildlife","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}