Deer: An Animal Rescue Story

Today we’re visiting a very special animal named Fork Shoals at The Magnolia Fawn Rescue in South Carolina. Come learn about how special deer are, what makes them a unique species, the rescue story of Fork Shoals, and how you can help protect deer! Let’s promise to do our part to protect animals and our planet Because here at Animal Rescue Adventures…every animal matters, and every explorer helps.

Transcript

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Hey explorers! Welcome to Animal Rescue Adventures, the show where we meet amazing animals and become heroes for them too. I'm Steph and today we're going on a rescue mission. Today we're visiting a very special animal named Fork Shoals at the Magnolia Fawn Rescue in South Carolina. Can you guess what kind of animal she is? Fork Shoals is a deer. Let's learn a few cool things about deer. Antlers are one of the fastest growing tissues in the world, growing up to an inch every two days. When antlers grow, they are covered in a fuzzy skin called velvet. Baby deer, called fawns, are born with white spots to blend into the forest, and they are born without a scent, which helps them hide from predators. Deer can hear better than humans and can pinpoint exactly where a sound is coming from. Deer are excellent swimmers and will cross wide rivers and lakes. They grow special thick fur to keep them warm in winter and shed it in the spring. Deer don't have top front teeth. They use their hard palate to chew food. Deer often live in groups called herds. The largest deer is the moose, which can stand over seven feet tall, while the smallest is the padoo, standing only about twelve inches tall. Deer can jump eight feet high. Can you jump that high? But Fork Shoals hasn't always been a strong jumper. Fork Shoals, a little fawn and doe, so a baby deer that was a female, was brought to the Magnolia Fawn Sanctuary after someone tried having a deer unsuccessfully as a pet. They put her in the sanctuary with other fawn baby deer that could make her more wild, and they released her into the forest. But then a few months later, she showed up back at the sanctuary with a herd jaw and not able to eat. So the rescue team rehabilitated her jaw, gave her adequate food, and eventually released her again into the wild. However, a few months after that, she was hit by a car and broke her leg. So the sanctuary once again took her in and fixed her leg. But this time she had a permanent limp, which makes it hard for a deer to run around and jump, a skill she would need to get away from predators and survive in the wild. So then what happened? Fork Shoals ended up staying permanently at the rescue this time. Because of her limp, it was safer to keep her there so she could be out of harm's way, nourish herself, and hang out with her friends. She's still at the sanctuary today and very happy. Trivia time. How many feet can deers jump up to? Three, eight, or twenty? Eight feet. What are baby deer called? Fawn. What is a group of deer called? A herd. What sense do deers have that is way stronger than humans? Hearing, they can hear sounds much further away. What are antlers covered in? A fuzzy skin called velvet. Alright explorers, here's your mission today. You can help deer like fork shoals by not keeping deer as pets. They are meant to be wild. Use deer safe measurements in your family's yard or garden to keep deer out, such as high fences higher than eight feet, and not using nets that they could get tangled in. Asking your parents until you start to drive to reduce how fast they're driving in forested areas where deer might live and cross the street. This helps with less cars hitting deer. Using sprinklers, lights, or alarms to scare deer away from residential areas, that means where you and other humans live, because this helps them keep away from humans and in their natural habitat. Every small action makes a big difference. Our adventure ends today with our new friend Fork Scholes. Let's promise to do our part to protect animals and our planet. Because here at Animal Rescue Adventures, every animal matters and every explorer helps. And for the parents listening, remember to sign up for our Animal Rescue Adventures Club at www.supportanimal rescue adventures.com. That's support animal rescue adventures dot com. See you later.