Why did it die?
A Rocky Mountain mule deer fawn (Odocoileus hemionus hemionus) was found in a weakened condition in the northeastern part of the park on August 22. The trail crew came across the little buck when they stopped to eat lunch. It appeared to be hungry, perhaps even starving, so they offered it some of their lunch milk, which it gulped avidly.
The crew foreman put the fawn in his pick-up and brought it to headquarters, but it died on the way. Weighed and measured at the warehouse, it was very slight for the body dimensions. It weighed 28 pounds and was 42 inches in total length. It was at least three months old according to the degree of tooth eruption. A brief field autopsy showed no obvious parasitic condition to cause death, and no easily detectable disease symptoms. The ruminant stomach was about half full of vegetable food, but seemed to be deficient in moisture content.
The dental condition also did not indicate an inability to feed on browse, as the deciduous teeth were all functional, and the last molars had just penetrated the gum line. There was no mesenteric or subcutaneous fat on the fawn, and the general appearance of the animal was of gaunt hunger. Had his mother met an untimely end? Was he not yet weaned, and the food in his stomach only a desperation attempt to survive? Why did he die in infancy, and what factors brought on his death? Here are questions one asks of nature.
What is he doing here?
On the evening of August 19, while talking to some park guests on the lakeside porch of the lodge, a cony (Ochotona princeps) was seen several times hopping across the lighted area before the open lounge doors. Since lodge porches are definitely not the habitat favored by conies, and as they are not known to relish peanuts or other park visitor squirrel-bait, what was this rock-loving cousin of the rabbit doing here? Perhaps he was curious about the activity in the lounge, as he stopped and seemed to peer inside the open doors each time he traversed the lighted area.
