Birth of a Fawn

Bu Marie Lowe

It is not often that people are privileged to view the miracle of new life in the natural world. My husband, West, and I were fortunate recently to do just that, in triplicate!

While gazing out our bedroom window early one morning this past May, we noticed a beautiful doe lying in the woods adjoining our home. As we watched, the doe stood up, turned her tail to us and gave birth to a perfect little fawn! We had a clear view of the whole delivery, watching mesmerized as the mother again laid down, this time to clean her fawn and nuzzle it into a new world.

Soon the newborn deer was trying over and over again to stand up, and after a very challenging hour, finally stood. It wasn’t long before the fawn began to act like a youngster, exploring his newly found territory on very unstable legs, returning to mom to nurse and then be off again, but he never strayed far away.

We were both so excited to see this that we were not prepared for the next course of events. The doe stood after a few minutes and moved around a bit. We thought she was getting ready to move on, but then she stopped, arched her back and, as we watched, she delivered two more babies. We had just witnessed the birth of triplet fawns!

At this point, the doe appeared to be very tired, which caused us to fear that she might not have the strength to clean the babies and coax them into standing. We watched as the young ones remained on the ground in the afterbirth with their little heads poking up out of the leaves as the mother tried to clean them. It ultimately took the doe a few hours to finish this process. Finally, they were all standing, three beautiful fawns of varying sizes.

The doe eventually moved the newborns to a bramble thicket below our house, and there they remained for a few more hours, as the mother ate to restore her strength.

A recent study conducted by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection focused on deer in the Northwest Corner and found that 67% of does gave birth to one offspring, 27% had twins, but only one of the 26 deer studied had triplets. This Norfolk sighting was truly a rare observance.

Being able to observe this miracle and enjoy the incredible beauty, innocence and wildness is an unforgettable experience, and a privilege we will always remember.