Adorable orphaned fawns

Two fawns have been rescued after a cougar killed their mother on B.C.'s Sunshine Coast.

A doe and stag had been living on the Roberts Creek property for some time, and the resident noticed the fawns were born the week of May 11. A cougar killed the doe the morning of May 19.

“We responded and found the two little fawns in the bush, hiding as they do,” said Sgt. Dean Miller of the Conservation Officer Service.

It’s normal for does to leave their fawns for up to 12 hours while foraging elsewhere. “Of course we knew what happened to the doe, so we captured them and contacted a regional biologist,” said Miller.

The cougar was not located by hounds, but because conservation officers removed the deer corpse and took away the fawns, they expect the cougar to move on.

“That area is a corridor for wildlife and a sample of the food chain. You do have the prey species eating non-native plant species and then the predators follow,” Miller said.

As for the fawns, they will spend their life with Beyond Bears, a specialized animal training company based in Abbotsford, and will be trained for film and television.