Mother and Fawn

[Murugan Anantharaman]

Deer are often taken for granted by most in jungles, while in reality a healthy deer population signifies a lush jungle and also brings about chances of spotting predators. Its quite lovely to watch them frolic around especially when there are little ones around. However, they live in constant state of alertness and are very observant of the slightest sound and smell in the jungle. While we were observing the spotted deer in Mudumalai, there was a slight commotion in the herd and this mother gave out a low cry, it didn't sound like a call of the presence of a predator as the others didn't seem alarmed or alert. The fawn was close to the mother observing in the direction of the herd. Sometimes deer call when they spot humans too, not sure if it was us or something else. Things settled down in a couple of minutes and the grazing continued without any further hindrance.

Nikon D7k, f/7.1, SS 1/30, ISO 2000,195mm (Nikon 70-300VR)

[Shyamala Kumar]

Nice write up giving a feel of real jungle experience . Yes the Spotted Deer are always on tenterhooks . Nice image . Thanks for sharing .

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice image and write-up describing their behavior. I agree we normally miss observing them in the rush to sight a tiger or a leopard. It seems the light was very low. It is good you used a high ISO. I feel, a slight less space on the right and more on the left would strengthen the composition further. Thanks for sharing.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

It is always nice watching a fawn. Observing the communication between mother and child is always interesting. These fawns are often the target of predators as they are easy to catch.

A positive exposure compensation would have been better. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Prashant Gandhi]

Great shot Murugan! I like the way in which you have described the relationship between a mother and her child! Great job! :thumbup:

[V S Sankar]

Your description made me remember Kenneth Anderson's writings.Describing the jungle in detail and taking extra care to describe whats happening around is real talent.A slight tweaking of the pic would have helped as mentioned by Sabyaji and Mrudulji.

Regards