Last night in I saw I doe with three fawns... How rare is that? Never seen that before. I know the mortality rate is higher with twin fawns. I can just imagine the likelihood is going to be slim for all three of these little fellows. It was cute watching all three play. They did seem a little on the small side. Hopefully they'll survive!
Good feed and healthy does and it's not uncommon. Around here it's quite unusual to see a doe with twins anymore because the doe can protect one but not two when the #$%^&@# coyotes attack.
I spoke to the DNR about this a few years ago. I guess it's not that rare. The survival rate is what's rare. Somehow the mother selects one of the fawn to milk first and that fawn will always get to eat first, most of the time that fawn will pretty much drain the mother leaving little or none left. Factor that in with predation and other ways of mortality and that's why it seems so rare.
I saw triplets nursing in Sept one year. All three were at it. It was actually open season already n they were tiny w spots. Thought it was a late drop until I saw 2 tiny spotted fawns in Dec one year. Odd things in nature may not be totally odd
We had triplets running around in 2014. It's pretty common for a healthy herd and fortunately the yote population is under control in our area.
We saw triplets in the field yesterday while headed in to work on the plot. Only the second time in person I have seen them but have seen them quite a few times on the cameras here.