A FAWN only a few days old has been removed from his home in Richmond Park to a wildlife hospital after a walker called the RSPCA assuming he had been abandoned by his mother.

On Tuesday evening at 7.30pm on June 2nd the fallow deer fawn was taken from the Park to the RSPCA hospital in Putney from where it was transferred to London Wildcare Hospital.

Jeremy Storey-Walker at London Wildcare said: "A member of the public noticed that it was severely distressed and reported it first to the Parks Police, and then again to the RSPCA when it's condition appeared to worsen.

"The RSPCA confirmed that it was unwell and took it to their facilities in Putney, where the vet inspected it and decided to transfer it straight to London Wildcare Hospital.

"Less than a week old 'Gilbert', as he has been christened by Ted Burden, the Director of London Wildcare, was extremely weak when he arrived. Gilbert was probably genuinely abandoned by its mother, who may have been scared away. "

Simon Richards, Richmond Park manager, said: "Our annual cries are that deer are very rarely abandoned by their mothers. Every year people pick them up, finding young deer in the undergrowth and thinking they are abandoned. They hand them in to us, to our wildlife officer who then has to put the deer back. If a member of the public is concerned about a deer, they should call our wildlife officer who can make the judgement. Do not approach deer, whether big ones or little ones, under any circumstances, and never ever handle them.

“Deer never abandon their young, mothers will move away to feed and young deer have no scent so they will not follow but they are at no risk just sitting where they are left and will not be distressed by their mother leaving them alone. If they are approached, the mother may run off to create a distraction but she will return.

"This animal may now have to remain as a domestic animal as it will have to be reared for quite a long time."

A spokesman for the RSPCA said they received a call and sent two inspectors out. A member of the public said there was a young deer collapsed on the ground. She said that somehow this person had got the deer to its feet although she could not say whether they had actually handled the wild young fawn.

She said: "The deer was only a couple of days old. We took it to Putney where it was examined by a vet. It had no injuries but the vet advised that it be transferred to London Wildcare for rehabilitation."

Although she said she could not comment on whether it had been appropriate for the person to approach the fawn in this case, she said: "At this time of year we have a lot of calls to animals that people think have been abandoned. We advise that if people see a young animal they think has been abandoned is to just keep an eye on it, do not touch it, leave it alone but keep checking to see if a parent has come back.

"In this case the caller does seem to have got the deer to stand. Our advice is simply to keep an eye on the animal, a lot of the time the parent has just gone off to get food, but you can keep going back to check on them. They are wild animals, so it is best to leave them alone, to keep your distance as once you go neat their parents might flee."

Although she could not comment on the actions of this particular caller she said: "Some people are trying to be kind but can end up doing more harm than good."

Mr Storey-Walker said the fawn is now doing very well and being bottle fed with goat’s milk.

He said: "This will be substituted with lamb’s milk shortly, which he will stay on for some time to come. He will continue to be bottle fed until he is 12 weeks old and hopefully will be released towards the end of the year, perhaps even early next year as they usually stay with their mothers for a very long time."