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Gestation Period & Birth

A deer's gestation period is 200 to 205 days, most of the fawns being born in the latter part of May or the first part of June. A doe giving birth for her first time will have a single fawn; thereafter she is likely to have twins. In areas of good food, triplets are common as well as occasional quadruplets. There are even three records of quintuplets.

At birth a baby doe weighs about 4 1/2 pounds while a buck weighs 5 1/2 pounds. At the time of birth, the doe may return to a preselected spot or she may give birth wherever she happens to be. The fawns are born over a period of time that may extend from ten minutes up to two hours.

As soon as the fawn is born, the doe licks it dry with her tongue, Even before it can walk, the fawn in a matter of minutes seeks out the doe's udder and starts to nurse. The doe remains lying down so that the wobbly young can reach her nipples.

By the time the fawns are twenty minutes old, they can walk slowly on very shaky legs. The doe, as soon as possible, will lead her fawns away from the place of birth where her body fluids have soaked into the earth and may attract predators.

When a suitable place of concealment is reached, the doe leaves her fawns and moves off perhaps 100 yards away. The fawns in their spotted coats are almost impossible to see and are almost odorless. The doe comes back five to eight times a day to nurse the young and then leaves again. She always remains somewhere in the area where she can see if danger approaches or can hear the little ones if they call to her.

After two to three weeks' time, the little ones are strong enough to follow the doe when she feeds. They then begin a process of self-weaning. Imitating their mother, the fawns taste various types of vegetation. As they increase this type of food intake, their demand for milk lessens and soon they are completely weaned. Before it is a week old, a fawn can easily outrun a man.
The young does may stay with the female throughout the winter but the bucks may leave in the first fall. About 40 percent of the young does may breed in their first autumn so that they give birth when they are one year old.

The sex composition of any deer herd is influenced strongly by the hunting procedures allowed. Slightly more bucks than does are born but it is close to a 50-50 ratio. However, many states do not allow does to be hunted, and the mature does soon exceed the number of bucks. Where well fed, deer will reproduce to the point where the newborn fawns comprise 30 to 40 percent of the total herd.