This trail camera video, captured by John Lockburner Jr. in Sussex County, New Jersey, shows a black bear carrying a white-tailed deer fawn in its mouth. The doe runs through the area, and the fawn’s cries can be heard as the bear runs away.
While black bears are often associated with berries, nuts and other plant foods, they are also opportunistic predators. During late spring and early summer, newborn white-tailed deer fawns can be particularly vulnerable because they spend much of their time lying motionless in vegetation while their mothers forage nearby.
Studies have found black bears can be an important source of fawn mortality in some areas. Research in Minnesota found bears were responsible for nearly half of documented fawn predation deaths, while studies in Pennsylvania and New Brunswick also identified black bears as a significant predator of young deer. In some regions, researchers have found bears kill as many fawns as coyotes, or even more.
The impact of bear predation varies depending on factors such as deer density, habitat conditions and the abundance of other predators. Even so, wildlife research across North America has consistently shown that black bears play a larger role in fawn survival than many people realize.