Spotted - Mule Deer Fawn

As a kid I enjoyed very much the Disney movie Bambi. All those little creature like skunks, chipmunks and raccoons were all new to me. The way Disney made them almost human was remarkable. Later as a professional artist traveling the National Parks of North America, I was excited to finally meet all those strange animals, although the deer in Europe look quite similar to the deer families in the new world. These ruminants mostly have spotted babies. It’s an element of camouflage, combined with a lack of scent, it helps them to survive and avoid predators. The character in the movie was a white-tailed deer. The first field trips on this continent I had to learn the difference between the new world deer species. Amazing were the big ears of the mule deer, which is less common than the white-tailed deer. Their features are quite different and it took me a while before I could recognize them. Now they are familiar to me as sparrows.

Grass eaters were a big source of proteins for predators like wolf, coyote and cougar. Since those have disappeared in many states, deer can become a plague. New predators are born: the human hunters, but can they restore the balance and stop the overpopulation?