Thread: Fallow fawn info

Hi I'm just after some info on fallow deer and their fawns. My friend just shot a hind in a pine block at about 1130am and he didn't see a fawn but know she's got one somewhere we went back with dogs to try find the fawn but can't where do fallow hide their fawns and how far do they travel from their fawn when grazing

The first info is Fallow are reffered to as bucks and does not hinds and stags.

A red fawn can be all but completely invisible till you stand on it even in a paddock with a scant 200mm of growth for cover, so I imagine a Fallow fawn would be even harder to spot depending on colour phase.

Best plan is don't shoot mature females until end of feb when a fawn has a fair chance of survival on its own.

Yea I wouldent have shot it myself if was my mate . Hence why I want to find the fawn so I can hand raise it . We have a farm we can raise it on . And I know that technically it's a doe and buck but hey I'm not going to call a yearling a teg just go be propped

Good luck finding it,perhaps sitting and listening for its bleat for mum might be the way to go?

Yea thanks I'll need all the luck I can get. Yea that's tonight's plan to head out with the spotlight and see if we can hear it then spot it . And we have a couple of heading dogs and a vizsla to catch it if it's a bit bigger the dogs couldent seem to find it earlier but maybe I we looked in the wrong place

I was told dogs cant smell the fawns.

Originally Posted by Brian

I was told dogs cant smell the fawns.

Oh true that would suck . I've heard they dont really have an odor but I didn't think dogs wouldent be able to smell them. I talked to a hunter with a vizsla in the ruahines a couple weeks back he claimed his vizsla was leading him in on them as well as deer he saw 6 deer and 3 fawns

Maybe he was all verbal diahrea

When I go 'wondering' with a thermal imager, see a few fallow fawns, some with their mothers, and some by themselves. When by themselves, they lie quite still, except for moving their heads.

A couple of nights ago (around midnight), I was demonstrating a thermal to a customer in a reserve behind Richmond, when I spotted a fallow fawn lying on a bare hillside, about 100 metres away. I can only guess that when we arrived in the car, mum took-off to a nearby 'safe' place, leaving the fawn to lie motionless in the open. When I made a noise, it would turn its head to look, then lie low again. I kicked myself for not having a recorder.

Fawns wont last long in this heat without a feed from mum.

The poor little bugger will starve to death, this time of year just get out with the camera.

Was just talking to a Fallow deer farmer close to where I rabbit shoot and he said the Doe wont have gone far from the fawn (50-100 metres dependant on how thick/open the area is) and if you shoot the mum then the fawn will seek out the mum within an hour for a feed. So if you know there was a fawn, it may pay to wait a while by the carcase.

I find it distasteful enough shooting milky rabbits, let alone deer with young. Excellent opportunity to get some great photos though, and just watch and get eaten alive by mozzies

Originally Posted by Phill243

Maybe he was all verbal diahrea

Probably not. A dog can follow a humans track 24hrs later after rain across a bare riverbed....A dog can smell a fawn. Young fawns spend a ton of the day curled up on the ground so that may give out less scent as there is less air movement so low.

The fawn won't have been far away, less than 100m. You can sometimes hear the hind's grunting this time of year which makes the fawn get up and go to the hind.

PM sent.
I hope you find it.
KH