The school holidays are over in Bavaria, and for many children the 1st day of school was an exciting and thrilling experience. But it is not only human children who have to go to school; young animals have a lot to learn too. Fawns and red deer calves depend on learning from their mothers where to find the best forage, where danger lurks, and where they can bed down to rest and find shelter.
With red deer, the very close bond between hind and calf is always emphasised. Orphaned red deer calves languish and suffer psychologically and physically. They lose not only their mothers, but also their place in the herd, and never make up the physical deficits in their development over the course of their lives.
In many hunting areas, however, roe deer are the predominant hoofed game species, and here too a close bond can be seen between doe and fawn. Roe deer develop more quickly and their young become independent earlier. Nevertheless, in autumn (picture 1) the bond is naturally still very close; in many does it can even be observed in spring (pictures 2 and 3 from April). Only once the new fawn has been born does the doe drive off the yearling bucks in particular, while the young does are often still tolerated nearby.
Many thanks, @woodruff.xc, for the lovely photos that we’re allowed to use for this post.
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