White-tailed Fawn

WDNR Changes Rehabilitation Rules for Deer

In 2021, when research indicated that white-tailed deer could become infected with the virus and could transmit it to other deer, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) required enhanced biosecurity for rehabilitators working with fawn, including mandatory release of the fawn before winter, during hunting season, and at an age where all published studies show they have minimal chances of surviving past 30 days. (If you are interested in a copy of these studies, e-mail wildrehab@fellowmortals.org).

Fellow Mortals has no issue with the biosecurity requirements — and in fact our entire animal care staff has been vaccinated — but we do object to the mandatory release of fawn in the fall, and to the requirement of an obvious tag, though we would not be averse to using a discrete metal tag that would achieve the same purpose of identification should a fawn be killed or found dead.

Release Considerations & Natural History

When released in southeastern Wisconsin, rehabilitated fawns will encounter high levels of traffic on the many roads that cut through what were once rural areas, harsh winter conditions that make browse inaccessible to small deer, and predators including coyote and dogs, as well as human hunters.  In Walworth County, hunting “opportunities” do not end until January 31 — and hunters do take fawns during this time, as tagged fawns are reported to us.

Fellow Mortals Follows the Science of Natural History.  For all the years that Fellow Mortals has rehabilitated deer (1989-2003 and 2014-2020) we have released in the spring with the full knowledge of the Department.  A fawn stays with the doe through the winter and does not leave until she gives birth in May or June.

In 2014, we built an expansive and expensive overwintering habitat (unique to the wildlife rehabilitators of Wisconsin) at a remote location, for the express purpose of eliminating the need to drug fawns for transport and release at another location, and eliminating human contact with the fawns in preparation for their return to the wild.

This remote habitat, located on a 52-acre property with no human activity except our rehabilitation staff, encompasses one acre of hilly, wooded acreage that has natural browse and cover, and is equipped with freeze-proof automatic waterers and feeders.  Once the fawns are moved to this habitat, there is no further contact with humans.

There is absolutely NO biosecurity risk.  Release is accomplished by opening a gate in the spring.

Proposal to DNR for Exception to Change in Rehabilitation

Fellow Mortals wrote to the Department and offered to increase our already comprehensive biosecurity as added protection against possible transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to the deer.  We also offered to tag with a discrete metal tag that would suffice to identify a fawn if it was found dead and tested positive for the virus.  But we will not agree to releasing fawn when they are still of an age where they cannot fend off predators or find food in harsh winter conditions, in addition to being entirely naive as to hunters and roads.

The Department did not approve our proposal.

Why do we release in the spring?  The fawns who are orphaned and injured and come to rehabilitators lose something even more important than a wild mother when they come into rehabilitation:  They lose the ability to learn from the doe, which they would be following until the spring — learning how to avoid predators, where to find the best browse, where to bed down in safety for the night.

If you’ve ever seen an orphan fawn try to join a group that is feeding, you will see that the does aren’t kind to the orphan, and he or she will be kicked away and kept to the outskirts of the group.  We get calls every winter about these sad situations Fawns need their mothers to protect them and to teach them.

In lieu of the doe, all we can provide is the company of other fawns.

We can’t do anything to teach the fawn about the sudden danger that hunting season brings with bows or guns, or how moving objects will suddenly overtake them on the smooth surfaces of roads, so it’s incredibly important we give them every other advantage.

Fellow Mortals’ Philosophy of Rehabilitation

All we can do as rehabilitators for any wild being is try to even the odds that injury or orphaning brings by providing the best nutrition, the best care and housing, and the best choice of release habitat and season to give a real chance of surviving past the first few days in the wild.  This is our approach across species.  Keeping the fawns safe in the winter months in their own small herd gives them a fighting chance in the spring.

While we are licensed by the WDNR, we pay the bills with the funds you provide, we provide the care, we talk to you — the people who invest so much in the wild creature you have rescued from its fate — and we use our education, and our experience, as we put our lives and our hearts into the long days, weeks, or months of care necessary to turn tragedy into triumph for a wild one that recovers and is released.

We care deeply about the individual lives entrusted to us by you, and it is simply not possible for us to care for an orphaned, injured fawn knowing that — after fighting for and saving its life — it has very little chance of surviving the winter.

What can you do?

Keep healthy fawns with their mothers:  https://fellowmortals.org/2020/05/01/white-tailed-fawn/
If you’re in southeastern Wisconsin, contact your state Senator & Representative and refer them to this page (https://fellowmortals.org/fawns/). Ask them to consider introducing legislation to create an exception to the rules for rehabilitators who have the facilities to overwinter fawn while meeting the biosecurity requirements of the Wisconsin DNR, so that we can once again help when we are needed.  This will be during the spring 2023 session.

Find your Senator & Representative:  https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/WI