Dog-raised deer returning to his family
Published: October 21, 2005
A CHINESE deer, abandoned by his mother and raised by a pair of domestic dogs has been re-introduced to his family in Knowsley Safari Park.
One of only a few hundred of the rare Pere David deer known to be in captivity, the fawn, Mi-Lu was left under a bush with his twin in April this year. When the mother returned, she picked up the sibling but left Mi-Lu.
Nick Ellerton, the park curator and his partner, Penny Boyd, took in the orphaned fawn and nursed it back to health with the help of their Golden Retriever, kipper and their Lurcher, Geoffrey.
After an initially dangerous 48 hours, where the couple stayed up through the night with Mi-Lu and thought he might not survive, they managed to warm and feed him. “It was very, very hard, we were feeding him from a bottle.” said Miss Boyd..
Within days, he had settled down in the kitchen with the dogs, who took up the role of parents, washing Mi-Lu, taking him for walks and teaching him the rules of the house.
“It was very nice that another animal did the parenting,” said Miss Boyd..
“The fawn learned very quickly the boundaries of acceptable behaviour and the dog told him off as an animal would. Not like a human.”
Despite this, Mi-Lu is not at all confused about his identity.
When he was finally introduced to his relatives, the reaction was very good. Mi-Lu was greeted with curiosity but accepted without question.
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