Why Didn’t Fawn Cross the Road? Mama Deer v. Montclair Resident

Oh, dear.

Wednesday evening, Montclair resident Anastasia Conroy watched a mother deer cross Valley Road; back and forth, back and forth and then back once more.

Conroy was sitting outside her house, when a mother deer and her fawn emerged from the bushes in her backyard.

She watched as the mother deer headed into traffic and successfully crossed Valley near Normal Avenue and Montclair State. But she saw that the baby deer remained rooted in its place.

The fawn stood near Conroy on the side of the road as the mother crossed back across the street to retrieve it.

Possibly thinking that Conroy was a threat to her young, the mother deer began kicking at the grass in front of her. Conroy said it felt “like she was going to come after me.”

“I sat very still and the mother walked across again,” said Conroy.

At this point the mother deer had successfully passed through the Valley Road evening traffic three times, but her fawn was still afraid. Left alone again the fawn went right up to Conroy.

“I could have touched it,” said Conroy, “but I didn’t want to get my scent on it.”

For a fourth time the mother deer crossed the road attempting to retrieve her baby and this time the fawn obliged.

Despite a green light, cars on the busy street stopped for the mother deer and her baby and Conroy, as she entered the traffic.

“I was standing there so they wouldn’t hit them,” said Conroy.

While she was not standing in the middle of traffic, Conroy said, she stood close enough to the street so that cars would slow down, but far enough away from the deer’s to prevent frightening them.

The mother deer, with her fawn in tow finally made it across the road.