WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST?
This photo was taken years ago in the summer. It includes a doe and her 3 fawns or triplets. I don’t honestly remember the last time I saw a doe with triplets. Triplets become scarce in poor habitat or where a variety of young plants aren’t available for both nutrition and cover (from bears, etc.). I got thinking about this today as a doe and her buck fawn walked unexpectedly downwind of my trees-stand. Naturally, his older and wiser mother knew instantly the smell of a human and did not continue on her path. The buck fawn could not understand why his mother did not wish to continue to the greener pasture uphill and decided to bed beneath me and chew his cud. After about an hour, he got up and looked like the loneliest deer in the woods. He paced back and forth, back and forth., and finally went in the direction of his mother. Mothers normally kick out buck fawns to fend for themselves and spread their seed somewhere else. More normally are doe fawns that hang about. In any case, I felt kind of bad for this lonely guy.
Ryan Trapani
Director of Forest Services
Catskill Forest Association