Oh deer!

This time of year brings babies in the wild population of deer around the zoo. This morning when I looked out the back door of my building at work, I saw a doe walking toward the wooden fence outside the orangutan yard. She didn't appear to be grazing, so I watched her to see where she would go - if she jumped over the fence, it was sure to bring an interesting reaction from the orangutans in the nearby enclosure. Instead, I watched as a tiny fawn walked shakily from a spot out of my sight and joined her. It wasn't still wet, but for sure it was born within the last 12 hours or so.


I stepped just outside the door and snapped a bunch of pictures as she licked him, nursed him and he went for a short, wobbly stroll. Too cute!
Then she started walking away and he followed out of sight around the end of the fence. Later I saw her alone, so I started looking for the fawn between where I saw them last and where she was. For those of you unfamiliar with deer behavior, does will "park" their newborn fawns under a tree or in the grass while they go off and forage for food. The little ones just can't keep up with mom yet. The fawn instinctively stay very still even if someone approaches. Their dappled coats provide excellent camouflage. I actually walked pretty close to the fawn once when looking for it, before finally spotting it the second try. Here's a pic of it curled up in the grass: