Dave and I were out tracking radio-tagged box turtles when I saw it.
I could tell by the "beep" on the telemetry reciever, that I was getting close to the turtle. When that happens, one tends to get tunnel-vision (focused only on what's immediately at one's feet, to avoid accidentally stepping on the turtle). No more than five feet to my right, I heard a small commotion and looked to see a very young fawn jump up and run off into the woods.
I've gotten within 2-3 feet of fawns in the past (also while tracking herps with radio telemetry equipment), but these were in Wisconsin. I didn't realize that the batteries on my camera were dead when I took it into the field today, and it wouldn't have mattered because the fawn was up and running before I had known it was there. Regardless, I didn't get good pictures.
But, below are a few pictures of the last young fawn I ran into in the woods. This was from 2005 and this individual wouldn't budge until I got into almost an arm's length of it (hence the nice photos).
The date on the pictures from the day of upload were (surprise) May 24th, 2005.
Exactly 6 years ago today!
The fawns definitely hang tight and won't move until you just about step on them.
ReplyDeleteIt's a pretty good survival adaptation, isn't it? An animal with any kind of nose can find them, but big dumb primates like us don't stand a chance.
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