Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/06/04/baby-deer-befriends-toddler-f.html
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I hope they contacted the local wildlife control after shooting that video. There’s either an irate mother deer nearby (I almost had a tussle with an overprotective mother deer yesterday while mowing my lawn), or that baby deer will soon be in need professional care.
While it’s cute, the best thing to do is follow protocol: https://blog.nwf.org/2015/04/finding-a-fawn-what-to-do/
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Oh wow - that is a new baby. When I was little a farmer down the road had a young “pet” deer. Forget how he got it, but once it got older it went to live in the woods.
But as above, if you see a baby deer, leave it alone. The moms usually stash them and then come back to feed them later. They aren’t abandoned. I believe if a deer was alone from either being abandoned or mom getting hit by a car, then its ears will start to curl after a couple days of no food and that is when to get a wild life rehabilitator involved.
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Well, after the kid has touched the fawn, the deer will almost certainly need professional care. The mother will most likely abandon it when it picks up the human smell on it.
That the young child doesn’t know it that touching Bambi is a death sentence for it is to be expected but the parent who was filming this “cute” video should get their arse kicked for stupidity.
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We had a fawn curled up on our backyard last year for about 3 hours. It didn’t move at all. Wish I’d seen the doe come back and get it. Pretty cool.
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Create a Disney Movie Hotline: 1-888-KILL-MOTHER
Is this a stealth trailer for the reboot of The Yearling?
While I’ve heard this repeated, I’ve also heard the contrary by biologists. Yes, leave the animals alone, but touching alone shouldn’t actually cause harm.
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Depends on the level of contact, I guess, but the consensus seems to be that if the fawn smells of human, it will be abandoned. As such, any contact should be avoided.
Nonsense. There are several videos out there of fawns or calves being returned to their mothers, and I can attest from personal experience that it doesn’t matter if you’ve handled them or not. In fact, sometimes they’ll handle you! Also, this bogus idea denies the intelligence of animals generally, which is in reality far above and beyond what we typically ascribe to them. Thanks to @Mister44 for posting the sensible link.
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I don’t know if its true or not but i think it’s good advice to tell people to just not fuck with wildlife unless it’s immediately apparent that the animal is in need of aid. I’ve seen first hand people walk up to wild animals that really should not have been approached.
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A doe that’s having her babies in suburban backyards is not going to be afraid of the smell of humans. Wildlife rehabilitators are up to their necks in fawns every spring, most of whom were taken away from mom for no good reason because of the myth that they abandon their babies all the time. Don’t f with wildlife but don’t spread harmful myths.
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Oh yeah. No doubt about, or dispute with, that. Witness: Timothy Treadwell.
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Or…just putting this out there…we can appreciate the intrinsic cuteness of a human child and a fawn bonding while still recognizing as adults that we ought to leave wild animals alone for their own good.
Not everything needs to be a bitter fight.
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I have spent 30+ years trying to forget that scene; I hate you both.
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I’m a grown man and that is adorable.
I was also just commenting on adorable bunnies in my yard to somebody.
I grew up a deer hunter, but after living in Japan for three years and seeing the tame deer in Nara near Todaiji and at Miyajima near Hiroshima, where they come up to you and you can pet them even though they are wild, I lost all will to continue hunting them.
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A young adult deer once followed me from my apartment complex (next to a small wetlands sanctuary) on the way to my bus stop, and I was like 'dude, please do NOT cross the street when I do, ok?" Thankfully the deer didn’t.
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You apparently had no food for them. They are little terrors if you do. Scary, ruthless, aggressive terrors! (But cute.)
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imagining Monty Python rabbit sketch with deer now
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