What Does a Fawn Bleat Sound Like? (Video included)

Fawns, or baby deer, make many interesting sounds inspired by various events taking place around them, begging the question; how does a fawn bleat sound like? When happy, fawns make a goat-like bleating similar to that made by their mothers but with a higher pitch. A fawn’s bleating is necessarily an expression of joy, and they do it when playing with their mothers or socializing.

Various Sounds Made by a Fawn

A bleating sound is not the only sound a fawn makes. Depending on the occasion and the fawn’s surroundings, fawns tend to make various sounds to express how they feel. Let us have a more in-depth look at some of these sounds and what they mean.

A Fawn’s Nursing Whine

Fawns nurse immediately after birth in a lying position for about an hour when they are able to stand on their own. The first nursing experience has the fawn making some weak whining as they are still struggling to get the shape of everything around them. After the first nursing, the subsequent ones are done while the fawn is kneeling on their front legs. The sound they make here is stronger, and you can feel the pitch of their cries rising and falling. The kneeling position only lasts for two weeks.

When the third week comes knocking, fawns nurse while standing, and they make a clear cry during the process. They produce a sound with rising and falling pitch sounding like a rusty screen door blown in the wind. However, the sound is not audible if you are standing at a far off distance. A fawn’s nursing whine is primarily meant for bonding with the mother during the nursing process.

A Fawn’s Distress Cries

A fawn won’t keep quiet while in danger; in fact, it makes a sharp continuous cry that sometimes is as strange as a human’s cry. If you pass by, you may think it is a human being in trouble at a distance. The sound is clear and sharp, especially if it is made in the evening’s cool hours.

The mother deer always easily identifies their fawn’s distress calls, and they respond by running fast towards the crying fawn’s direction. The fawn’s distress calls always rise in pitch depending on how much danger the fawn feels.

If a predator is chased, the cries are always louder and panicked, whereas if the fawn is merely lost and searching for the herd, they cry in a rhythmic and quiet pitch.

You can always listen and mimic a fawn’s distress cries to lure does into an open space where you can hunt them down easily. The best moment you can learn this sound is when the season begins, and fawns are still young. 

However, it would be ideal if you took extra care because you never know what will follow the sound of the fawn call you are mimicking. You might attract a predator following an easy catch.

A Fawn’s Bleats

A bleating fawn is a happy fawn. However, sometimes they can mix their distress cries with desperate bleats to alert the mother of their whereabouts. While they mostly make a bleating sound when happy and enjoying their fellow fawns’ company, they use the bleats mainly to communicate and bond with their mothers. Likewise, when a fawn bleats, the mother responds with bleats to communicate how far they are from the fawn.

A fawn’s bleats are higher in pitch than those of the mothers because of their small bodies. Bleats are a sign of great social bonding among the entire deer family, and when a group of does is feeding, you are highly likely to hear the fawns bleat as they play around.

Fawn Sounds Recognition by Adult Deer

Does a Doe Recognize their Fawn based on Sound alone?

The sounds a fawn makes are instrumental for communication between a fawn and its mother. However, the sound is not the only thing a doe uses to identify its fawn. Other traits like scent work best for the mother when identifying their young ones. However, the fawn is always very much tuned to its mother’s voice and can easily tell it is their mother calling from a distance. What sounds does a doe make? Here is an exclusive article on deer sounds.

The imbalance in voice recognition is mostly because of the deer’s environment, which makes it a challenge for the doe and its offspring to communicate effectively.

Do Bucks Ever respond to Fawn’s Bleats for Help?

Most often, it is the does that respond to the cries of help from a fawn. The reason for that remains to be the motherly instinct that is inherent in the does. The bucks, however, rarely follow or respond to a fawn’s cry for help.

Like many other male animals, bucks do not care so much about the young fellows. They will probably be busy making new territories and securing other females into their territories. The does are left to take care of the fawns alone. In fact, after giving birth, the doe nurses its young ones and leads them away into a secluded place within its usual home range.

According to research carried out by the University of Winnipeg and Midwestern University, does are found to be among the most caring mothers in the wild. They can respond to cries of babies that are not of their species. This includes human babies, domestic cats, dogs, and sea lions’ young ones.  

If they can care that much about babies outside their species, you can only imagine how much they care about their fawns. This is why any cry from a fawn connects deeply to the doe’s instinct, and they involuntarily respond even if it means danger to them.

Final Verdict

A fawn is always active and playful in its first few weeks. You might not find it easy to monitor a fawn’s bleating patterns. However, you can always carry a recorder with you to record their voice and play it out in an amplified volume the next time you go to the fields. This may bring the does running to your direction hence an easy catch.