DRW mother deer gets aggressive over fawns

(Updated to correct ODFW rep’s advice)

Mothers go to great lengths to make sure their children are protected. In Deschutes River Woods south of Bend, a deer who just gave birth is making sure everyone in the area knows to stay away — even those who are just roaming their own yard.

The deer tried to attack a neighborhood dog, according to his owner, who called him away before he could get hurt.

But not every dog escaped the motherly wrath of this aggressive deer.

“The neighbor’s dog, which is a big Lab, walked by the back gate against the canal and toward my neighbor’s house,” DRW resident Heidi Reid said Thursday. “Next thing you hear, just — he’s just crying, he’s crying, he’s crying. That went on for, God, like, two minutes.”

The dog was OK, but the deer was not done. Shortly thereafter, she went looking for other potential threats to her fawns.

Even a 125-pound dog did not scare her. The deer came up to a neighbor’s fence and started threatening it. They had a standoff but luckily didn’t meet outside the gate.

“My dog was barking,” DRW resident Christie Camara said. “There was a deer standing out here. She was basically kind of facing him off — wanted to fight him, basically is what it looked like. And she wouldn’t leave.”

An Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife representative said seeing does with fawns in residential areas is common this time of year — and the first thing to do is keep your dogs out of their way, and then call a biologist if the issues continue.

The last thing you want to do, as this deer proved, is get between a mother and her fawns.