Whitetail Hunting photo
SHARE
httpswww.fieldandstream.comsitesfieldandstream.comfilesimport2014importBlogPostembedFN_fawn.jpg

The ongoing, record-setting, seemingly never-ending drought in the southern part of the nation is taking a heavy toll on everyone, including the wildlife. Deer in Texas and other particularly hard-hit areas of the southwest are beginning to abandon their fawns.

From this story in the Houston Chronicle:
The extreme heat and persistent drought seen in much of Texas is taking its toll on wildlife, with deer, birds and other animals abandoning or unable to feed their young. Pregnant does are having problems carrying fawns to term, and most of them born prematurely aren’t surviving, according to the Texas AgriLife Extension Service. Other does are abandoning their newborns because drought-induced malnutrition has robbed them of their ability to produce milk. Abandoned fawns found all over the Panhandle and South Plains have been brought to the South Plains Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. Ten had been brought to the Lubbock wildlife center by the end of last week.
_
“With the drought, there is no feed for the mother deer. And if they can’t feed, they can’t produce milk. They can’t feed their babies, so they are leaving them,” center volunteer Gail Barnes told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal._

Anyone seeing signs of this in their area?