Published: May 19, 2026 at 8:00 a.m.

Salt Lake City — As you are out hiking and camping this summer, don’t be surprised if you come across a deer fawn or an elk calf during late May or June. If you do see one, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources requests that you not touch, try to feed or take the baby animal home — doing so can have fatal consequences for the animal and could also result in injury to you.

Deer fawns and elk calves are often born in June, which is why you may find one during your outdoor adventures during early summer. If you do happen to see one in the wild, you probably won’t see its mother. Not seeing its mother might lead you to believe that the animal has been abandoned, but that is rarely the case.

“Newborn fawns are actually frequently alone and isolated during their first weeks of life — and that’s on purpose,” Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Big Game Coordinator Mike Wardle said. “The mother knows that leaving the fawn alone is the best way to protect it from predators.”

Newborn big game animals fall into two categories: followers and hiders.

• Followers include bison calves and bighorn sheep lambs, which follow their mothers shortly after they’re born.
• Hiders, such as mule deer fawns and elk calves, do the opposite — they hide, alone, for most of the day for the first two to three weeks of their lives.

During the day, a doe deer will reunite with her fawn for a short time, to nurse it and care for it. Then, to draw attention away from where the fawn is hiding, the mother will leave the fawn. The doe will spend the rest of the day feeding and resting. Hiding is the best way for fawns to stay safe right after they are born. After two or three weeks, the fawn will be strong enough to start accompanying its mother.

Fawns are born with a light-brown coat that’s covered with white spots. This camouflaged coat allows the fawn to blend in with its surroundings. Fawns also don’t give off much scent, so it’s difficult for predators to smell them.

What to do if you see a deer fawn or an elk calf that appears to be alone

• Don’t approach it. Watch it or take a photo of it from a distance, but don’t go near it. In almost every case, the young animal has not been abandoned by its mother.
• Don’t touch it or pet it. Finding and petting newly born animals is a problem because the animal’s survival depends on it being left alone and undetected by predators. If you touch it, you may leave your scent on the animal, which could draw predators to it.
• Give it plenty of space. Even if you don’t touch the fawn or calf, getting too close can cause it to run away from you, resulting in the animal using energy it needs to survive.
• Never attempt to remove a fawn or calf from the wild or take it home. Utah Department of Natural Resources conservation officers occasionally respond to instances where an individual has taken a baby deer or elk home to “care for it.” However, that often has fatal consequences for the animal and can also create public safety risks as the animal matures. It is illegal to keep wildlife in captivity and can result in a class A misdemeanor. If you believe that a baby animal is injured or sick, report it to the nearest DWR office.

“Keeping your distance and not touching wildlife are essential to keeping young animals alive,” Wardle said. “Attempting to take matters into your own hands and trying to ‘help’ wildlife usually does more harm than good. Help wildlife by allowing them to remain wild.”

For more tips about how to safely live with deer and other wildlife, visit the Wild Aware Utah website.

Finch Walker

USA TODAY NETWORK

Updated May 18, 2026, 10:25 a.m. ET

Two Pittsburgh bald eaglets dead, mother sickened by unknown illness

For the first time in the nest’s history of being livestreamed to the world, both bald eagle chicks at the Glen Hazel nest in Pittsburgh have died.

The second chick, hatched in a nest along the Monongahela River, died on May 18 morning after several days of illness. The elder of the pair, its death came a day after the younger chick died. Both were less than two months old.

“This is an incredibly difficult moment for everyone who has followed and cared about this nest,” said PixCams, which streams the nest, in a Facebook post on May 18. “In 14 years of streaming these eagles, we’ve never experienced a loss like this at Glen Hazel.”

The mother eagle was showing signs of illness as of May 18.

Pittsburgh eaglets die six weeks after hatching

Pittsburgh welcomed both eaglets in early April, with the first egg hatching on April 2. The second eaglet emerged two days later on April 4.

The first eaglet died at 46 days old on May 18, a little more than six weeks after hatching. A day before, the younger of the pair died at 43 days old.

The eaglet began showing signs of illness on May 14, with symptoms including regurgitating food, a disinterest in eating, lethargy and weakness, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. The mother has also shown similar signs of illness.

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What illness caused the Pittsburgh eagles’ deaths?

As of May 18, officials didn’t know why the eaglets at the Glen Hazel nest died. Potential reasons included avian flu and having ingested something toxic such as rodenticide, the Post-Gazette reported.

Pennsylvania has seen millions of cases of avian flu in recent years, with more than 480 cases officially documented and 16 million domesticated birds impacted in the past four years, Spotlight PA reported. There have been 48 documented cases of avian flu in the state, a number that experts say is likely much smaller than actual cases.

Can wildlife services intervene to help sick eagle?

Officials have a response team ready, but as of May 18 morning, they were not intervening.

“We are exploring whether Pennsylvania and Federal permission might be granted to recover GH4 from the nest for necropsy and/or pull GH3 from the nest for assessment and care, though Federal Wildlife Service policy states that permission is not granted for interference with the natural course of events at an eagle nest,” PixCams said in a Facebook post on May 17 following the younger eaglet’s death. “Eagle nestlings do not always survive, and adults may also be injured or become ill through natural occurrences.”

In their May 18 post following the elder eaglet’s death, PixCams said officials were still “working to obtain the necessary permissions to investigate further and better understand what happened.”

It’s rare that federal permission is granted to enter a bald eagle nest, the Post-Gazette reported.

There was another case in April where an eaglet at the U.S. Steel nest near Pittsburgh swallowed a fishing hook and lure on camera. In this case, officials were given permission from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to rescue the eaglet to rehab it.

They have not been given permission to enter the Glen Hazel nest.

What is the survival rate for baby eagles?

Young bald eagles have a survival rate of about 50%, the Post-Gazette reported. This is the first documented instance where an eaglet has died in the 13 years the Glen Hazel nest has been webcammed.

“There’s high mortality and the natural history is rough,” said Carol Holmgren said, the education and rehabilitation partner for both the Glen Hazel and U.S. Steel nests.

How many bald eagle nests does Pittsburgh have?

There are two bald eagle nests in Pittsburgh.

The mother eagle at the Glen Hazel nest was the first female bald eagle to breed in the city limits for more than 150 years, the Post-Gazette reported.

And in 2021, eagles were spotted nesting at the Mon Valley Works Irvin Plant in 2021, about 12 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. U.S. Steel Corporation set up a live camera shortly after. Those eagles, Stella and Irvine, welcomed three chicks in March.

Both nests are currently livestreaming through PixCams of Murrysville.