Parked Fawns – Leave them be! You may find a newborn fawn in your yard or nearly stumble over one on a walk. So, fawns are often parked in Lakeway yards and on golf courses. The spot chosen may seem very exposed to us however, fawns are safer from predators out in the open than they would be if hidden in a wooded area. This protects the fawn, which has no scent to attract predators. The fawn is too weak and wobbly to travel far with its mother, so it will instinctively stay where the doe has placed it until she comes back. Then she may move the fawn to a safe area and leave it there while she goes to feed. A mother doe will clean a newborn fawn and let it nurse. White-tail does often have twins and occasionally even triplets. The City of Lakeway sees an abundance of newborn fawns each year in early spring and into summer. When walking, never get between a buck and a group of does. During rut, deer may be more prone to dart out in traffic be particularly aware when driving, especially at dawn and dusk. The bucks scrape the velvet off of their antlers and can become aggressive, butting each other for dominance and chasing does. Peak Rutting (mating) season is from October to January in Central Texas. They have been welcomed into the white-tail herd. A few escaped from a nearby exotic animal ranch, so you may see one or two in Lakeway. They were imported from India and Pakistan in the 1930s. Blackbuck antelope have dark backs and light bellies, but it is their distinctive tall and twisty horns that set them apart from deer. Once in a great while you may rub your eyes, when you see an exotic creature in the deer herd. If you are lucky enough to see one, they may be alone or with a small cluster of our white-tail does. A few axis bucks escaped from a nearby exotic animal ranch, and two remain in Lakeway. Axis were brought to Texas in the 1930s from India, where they are known as Chitals. A xis DeerĪxis deer are larger than our white-tails, but the most obvious difference is that axis keep their spots as adults. The White-Tails have a few distinguished guests living among them: axis deer and blackbuck antelope. Happily, there is no need for intervention, and we can focus on peaceful coexistence. Recent annual surveys have determined that the herd is stable in number and appears to be healthy and well-fed. Lakeway is fortunate to host all of our amazing deer. In Lakeway, melanistic deer are common around the Yaupon Golf Course, but it is rare to see them in other parts of town. Experts say the Texas Hill Country has more melanistic deer than anywhere else in the world. Their spots are hard to see, but glint silver in the sunlight. Unlike sickly albino deer, melanistic deer are perfectly healthy. These deer are much darker in color (dark brown to jet black), due to a concentration of melanin pigment. You may be fortunate and spot a melanistic white-tail. In Lakeway, their predators are coyotes, dangerous metal fencing ( click here for Safe Fencing), and vehicles ( click here for Driving in Deer Country). Ruminants, they mostly eat plants and shrubs, as well as fruits and acorns ( click here for Deer Resistant Landscaping). Sometimes solitary, most travel in small sets, combining into larger groups seasonally. (Many sources call them “white-tailed” deer, but around here we shorten that a bit.)įour to five million white-tail deer live in Texas. “White-tail” refers to the underside of their tails, which stand up and wave like flags when they sense danger. Mature does can bear twins or even triplets, in spring. Antlers will fall off in the winter and then regrow. The bucks are easily distinguished in summer and fall by their sets of antlers. Adults have reddish brown coats in the summer, fading to a duller gray-brown in winter. White-tail deer are the smallest members of the North American deer family.
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