Residents of McCall, Idaho, are asked to give deer plenty of space and keep dogs on leashes to avoid potential conflicts during deer fawning season.
Idaho Fish & Game staff in the McCall office start to receive reports of aggressive deer every year in mid-June or early July. This year the first report came last week up Warren Wagon Road.
“There are a couple of areas where we know of does that tend to become pushy or threatening when they have fawns hidden nearby. For the last few years, there’s been one up Warren Wagon Road and another near the Woodlands.” – Nathan Borg, Regional Wildlife Biologist.
Female deer are known to become agressive despite their typical docile nature. This is especially true in places where deer have fawns right in town, and they’ll be especially aggressive when encountering domestic dogs.
Since young fawns are typically hidden somewhere away from mom and removing a doe would result in the orphaning of the young door, Fish and Game has very few options to resolve these situations. Orphaned fawns are likely to die from predation or starvation.
McCall residents and visitors are asked to keep dogs close and on a leash and to stay well away from any deer spotted in nature. If a deer behaves aggressively, back away and yell until there’s a safe amount of space between you and the animal. Deer will shift more towards flight once the fawns are mobile enough and can keep up with the mothers, typically by the end of July.
