On Tuesday night, May 23rd, a volunteer from Innisfil got a call about a doe that was fatally killed by several vehicles hitting her on Innisfil Beach road. A witness said that she believes she saw one to two fawns fleeing the scene.
She called for some reinforcements to locate the infants as the street is incredibly busy and the babies would likely go closer to the road as they became more hungry. So, an extensive ground search began for the fawn(s). This was a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack as it was essentially swamp covered in dense brush. The babies likely wouldn’t be far from mom but they would be very scared and lying perfectly still.
After about an hour of hiking through the swamp, one the search party found this little guy. As you can tell by the smile on her face, this was a relief to us all. They searched about another hour before decided this boy needed to get off the busy street and to a quiet place.
Over the next few days, they returned to the site several times to look for the second fawn. The witness was not sure if there was in fact two, but if there was a second the baby wouldn’t be far.
An extensive search was done and another fawn was not found. However, one of the volunteers discovered another nursing doe in the area while playing a fawn distress call. Our belief is that there was only one fawn, but if there was in fact two, this other doe would adopt it.
We are a volunteer run organization. We do not have the resources to do animal rescue work. However, in this case we did what was needed to secure this boy’s future.
Now named Gideon, this little guy is now safe at Procyon Wildlife and has a new brother to keep him company. He has calmed considerably since his first few days and is now readily accepting the bottle. We are so beyond humbled to have been able to ensure he will he will get the life he deserves!
