What Is a Baby Deer Called? Fawns, Spots and Hiding

Names for young deer

Deer terms vary by species and by country. These are the most common:

For more on the adult names, see what is a male deer called?

When are fawns born?

White-tailed deer mate in autumn, and after a pregnancy of about 200 days, or 6.5 months, fawns are born mostly in May and June in North America. A young doe giving birth for the first time usually has a single fawn. Older does commonly have twins and sometimes triplets.

A newborn white-tailed fawn weighs only about 1.5–2.5 kg (3.3–5.5 lb). It can stand and walk within an hour or so of birth and starts nibbling plants within days, but for the first weeks it lives mainly on its mother’s rich milk.

Roe deer fawns are also born in May and June, often as twins. Roe deer mate in summer, in July and August, but the embryo pauses its development for several months before implanting, a process called delayed implantation, so the young are still born in early summer when food is plentiful.

Why do fawns have spots?

A fawn’s coat is reddish brown with rows of white spots along the back and sides. When it lies flat and still in grass or among leaves, the spots break up its outline and look like flecks of sunlight on the ground. This camouflage, combined with keeping completely still, makes fawns hard for predators such as coyotes and bears to see.

White-tailed fawns lose their spots at about three to four months old, when they molt into a grayish winter coat in late summer or early autumn. Some adult deer of other species keep spots: fallow deer and chital, for example, have spotted coats throughout life.

Why fawns hide alone

For about the first four weeks, a white-tailed fawn follows a strategy called hiding. The doe leads her newborn to a sheltered spot, where it lies down with its neck stretched out flat. She then feeds some distance away, often for several hours, returning a few times a day to nurse and clean it. If she has twins, she usually hides them in separate places, so a predator that finds one may not find both.

Staying away is part of the defense. An adult deer is large and smells strongly, while a still, quiet fawn gives off relatively little scent and is easily overlooked. By keeping her distance, the doe avoids leading predators to her young. When a fawn is about four weeks old and fast enough to escape on its feet, it starts to follow its mother on her foraging trips.

Biologists contrast this with the follower strategy of animals such as caribou and bison, whose calves can keep up with the herd within hours of birth.

Dangers for young fawns

The first summer is the most dangerous time in a deer’s life. Coyotes, black bears, bobcats and, in some areas, wolves and golden eagles take many young fawns. Survival varies a great deal from place to place: in parts of the southeastern United States, studies have found that more than half of fawns die in their first few months, mostly to coyotes, while in other regions most fawns survive to autumn.

In Europe, roe deer fawns face an unusual human danger. They hide in tall grass and hay meadows, and because they keep still instead of fleeing, many are killed by mowing machines in early summer. Farmers and volunteers in Germany, Austria and other countries now search meadows before mowing, often with drones carrying heat-sensing cameras, to find and move fawns out of harm’s way.

Growing up

White-tailed fawns are weaned at about 8–10 weeks, although some keep nursing occasionally into autumn. By their first winter they may weigh 20–35 kg (44–77 lb). Male fawns are slightly larger and grow small bony bumps on the head, which is why young males are sometimes called button bucks.

Young bucks usually leave their mother around their first birthday, while young does often stay with her family group for another year or longer.

Leaving fawns alone

Every spring, people find fawns lying alone and think they have been abandoned. In almost all cases the mother is nearby and will return when people and pets have gone. Wildlife agencies across North America and Europe give the same advice: do not touch or move the fawn, keep dogs away and leave the area quietly.

Picking up a healthy fawn separates it from the mother that is still caring for it. Only if a fawn is clearly injured or has been crying and wandering for many hours should you contact your state or local wildlife agency or a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, who can decide what to do.