By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
A deer fawn found on Kruzof Island and brought to Sitka over the weekend is in good health, but can’t be returned to the wild, state Fish and Game wildlife biologist Steve Bethune said Monday.
“We had a member of the public bring us a deer fawn last night and it has a happy ending this time, but it doesn’t always,” Bethune told the Sentinel. “It seems perfectly healthy – people find fawns sometimes and there’s no mom around and they assume it’s orphaned, and it’s almost always not the case.”
The female fawn, not much bigger than a house cat, was relocated Monday to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage, Bethune said.
During her one night in Sitka, the fawn stayed with Alaska Wildlife Trooper Kyle Ferguson, his wife Corrine, and their children Silas and Ayla. A photo Bethune sent to the paper shows the deer, now named Iris, curled up and napping alongside the Fergusons’ dog, Filson.
When it was found, Bethune estimates the fawn was less than a week old. Her umbilical cord was still attached.
A hiker who finds a fawn or other apparently abandoned small animal in the woods should just leave it alone, Bethune said.
“Just leave it there, just ignore it… Its best chances of survival are just to leave it alone,” he said.
A Sitka black-tail deer fawn shares a bed with Kyle Ferguson’s yellow Lab, Filson, recently. (Photo provided to the Sentinel)
Taking such an animal back to town is prohibited, he added.
“It’s illegal. We highly discourage anyone from picking up any perceived orphaned animals… It’s almost always people with good intentions but they are misinformed or uneducated on these scenarios,” he said.
He said the person who found the fawn will not be made to pay a fine.
The biologist noted that it’s common for Sitka black-tailed does to wander and leave their fawns in a safe space.
“It’s pretty common for the does to cache the fawns and they go off to feed, it’s kind of a predator avoidance strategy, the fawns are hiding and have such low smell that they’ll leave the fawns for a long period of time,” he said.
Animals taken out of the wild under such circumstances are often euthanized, but this fawn is an exception.
“The good thing about his story is we were able to find placement for it, but most of the time we can’t find placement for these animals. So we end up having to euthanize them; that’s what happens more often than not,” Bethune said.
Thinking back on the young animals that he has euthanized during his career, Bethune was empathic:
“It’s the worst part of my job,” he said.
But in this case, Bethune found a spot for the animal at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.
“Dedicated to preserving Alaska’s wildlife through conservation, education, research, and quality animal care, the AWCC takes in orphaned and injured animals and provides them with care and spacious enclosures,” the organization’s website says. It has also been involved in the reintroduction and restoration of Alaskan wood bison.
Before departing for Anchorage Monday night, Iris received care and fluids from Dr. Toccoa Wolf at the Sitka Animal Hospital. The fawn is now at the Portage wildlife center, Bethune said.
Bethune noted that the fawn was sent to the AWCC because the odds of reuniting it with its mother were slim.
“At this point, we don’t know where it was found and it got transported all the way back to Sitka from Kruzof… the chance of being able to reunite it with the doe is unlikely,” he said.
“The ‘lay low and hide’ strategy lasts for a couple weeks until they become mobile enough to accompany their mom,” Bethune said. He said a fawn is often up and following its mother in about three weeks.
He added that ADFG in Sitka sees a similar case about once a year, when a well-meaning person brings in a young wild animal.
“For example, we’ll get members of the public who pick stuff up and they want to be the ones to keep it and take care of it until we find placement for it and that’s illegal… We don’t want to encourage people to pick up orphaned animals,” he said.
