It’s rare to see a newborn fawn. Their mothers typically keep them safely hidden in the woods, and even where I live in the country, we see deer all the time but I have never seen a newborn fawn as small as the one in the video below. We see deer nearly every time we’re out because they eat in the open fields. We don’t have hunters out here because the game wardens patrol this area pretty carefully, so our deer feel safe coming out in the open to eat. However, a little girl named Maya Herring had a once-in-a-lifetime experience when she was only five years old. She and her family had just returned home from a canoe trip when something extraordinary happened.
As the family was getting out of their vehicle and walking in the yard to their house, a baby fawn hobbled out of the woods and up into the yard. It was headed towards the family but was completely fixated on little Maya. The little guy showed no fear of the people, which is odd, but he did something even more unusual. He approached Maya as if he instinctively knew he could be safe with her. The little fawn probably sensed another young soul and felt safer approaching her than he did the bigger humans who were there. Children are less threatening to wild animals than adults are.
When the little deer approached, Maya crouched down close to the ground as the little deer walked right up to her. The little girl started petting the fawn and sat there just stroking its fur for a while. He felt safe and seemed to really enjoy being around Maya. But what made this little guy approach the family? The Herrings theorized that he had probably gotten lost from his mother. The family took off to the woods together, with Maya leading the way and the fawn following closely behind her, never letting her out of its sight. Walking slowly, Maya helped him retrace his steps until he found a place where he felt comfortable.
YouTube
Then, he sat down and relaxed. Maya’s parents went back to the house to get some food and water to leave with the fawn, hoping that would sustain him until his mother found him. When the family walked back to the house, the fawn didn’t follow them. For the next few days, the family watched closely and sure enough, two adult deer and two baby fawns ended up all together in the family’s yard, and they’re fairly certain that one of the babies was the one that had approached Maya. The Herrings uploaded the video to YouTube, where it quickly went viral. Watch this remarkable video below.