Ask The Biologist

Better Late than Never

Better Late than Never

By Bob Humphrey

While we sometimes see late-born fawns, it’s not the norm.

QUESTION: I live in southeastern Connecticut, and this past season through the month of October I watched a doe and her fawn. The fawn was very small and still had its spots. The last week of October the doe was killed by a car in front of my property. I saw the fawn wandering around by itself the same day while I was hunting. I was sure it wouldn’t survive due to its size and the fact that the same week I got pictures of three different bobcats and numerous coyotes on the property.

Well, Mom must have taught him some survival skills, because I saw him a number of times throughout the season. He survived from October to the end of January living on his own. On Jan. 24, 2020, I got trail camera pictures of him, which I have attached. In 43 years of hunting I have never seen a fawn this small still holding its spots at the end of January.

When do you think this guy was born? –Brad K.

ANSWER: Without seeing the pictures, my answer would have been similar, but opposite to a response I provided just a couple weeks back regarding an early born fawn. When breeding dates are plotted on a graph, you end up with a bell-shaped distribution. The high point represents the majority, with declining numbers of does being bred as you move in either direction, earlier and later. Some does come into estrus a month before the majority, and those not bred during peak rut will cycle again roughly 28 days later. As a result, you could have fawns in the same population born two months or more apart.

Peak breeding in Connecticut occurs in mid-November, and most fawns are born in late May and early June. But some could be born in July, and possibly even August. However, even a late-born fawn should be close to adult size by the end of January.

Furthermore, it should lose its spots when its summer coat is replaced by a winter coat. It’s possible this was an extremely late-born fawn, perhaps the offspring of a doe fawn bred very late the previous season, which sometimes happens in areas of exceptional nutrition. Another possibility is that it is a mutation. In rare occasions, some deer retain their spots into adulthood. Rarer still are dwarf or pygmy deer, which this could be an example of.

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