Nearly New

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I was driving along near the Yellowstone Picnic area in Yellowstone National Park, which is a notorious hangout for antelope mothers-to-be in the spring when I noticed this antelope doe acting in a furtive, downright sneaky way. Since antelope are normally pretty straight forward animals not given to furtive, sneaky behavior, I figured she was up to something. She gradually moved over the crest of the hill and out of sight. Since I was on the lookout for sneaky mothers I immediately pulled over and climbed the hill to see what was going on. I had no sooner crested the hill and located her when I saw her give birth and the second fawn hit the ground. It happened so fast that I didn’t even have a chance to get my camera up. She had already dropped the first fawn as I was fumbling about trying to get my camera gear together. It seemed like only seconds later she had both of the new twins up on their tiny little hooves ready to move in case there was any danger. If you look closely at the fawn on the left you will see the umbilical cord dangling. These babies are nearly new. I was far enough away from them that I wasn’t alarming them, I know it looks close but that is due to the miracle of the ‘long glass’ of the telephoto lens, but she was antsy because there had been coyotes around and they are able to take down an antelope fawn without any trouble. The average antelope fawn weighs between 5 & 8 lbs.  at birth and the average adult coyote weighs 25 to 45 lbs. so there is little contest if the coyote sees the fawn. However, antelope moms are the tigers of the ungulates when it comes to coyotes. On a previous trip I watched a coyote stalking a fawn when the antelope doe spotted him. She chased him, easily running him down and nearly killed him by trying to step on him with her sharp hooves. At one point she caught him, rolled him over and before he could get back on his feet she had trampled him several more times. I mean she handed him his lunch. He got away but only just. That coyote is now mostly hunting ground squirrels. The moral here is if you are a coyote don’t mess with antelope babies. Mom will clean your clock.