Via reader Barry and a story in PuffHo, we learn that baby deer also appreciate the gastric massage. The YouTube notes tell the tale:
My buddy and I were clearing a right of way for the electric lines and came across this fawn trapped in the fall path of the tree we were about to trim. He was tangled in some thorns and was pretty shaken up after we cut him loose, so we started rubbing his belly to calm him down…. which worked a little too well, as you can see.
He followed us around the job site like a lost puppy for about an hour until I noticed a doe watching us from the hillside. Assuming this was his mother, I carried him about halfway up the hill while she watched attentively. I sat him down, he ran straight to her, and they walked off together.
All’s well that ends well.
soooooo sweet! What a funny cry the fawn has.
I think the fawn is just afraid of being dropped as he/she bleats right at that moment where he/she is about to roll down to the ground.
That occurred to me too. Maybe the fawn bleated to be picked up when it was off-camera.
I’m going to guess that many/most mammals which nurse from the belly like having their stomach rubbed. Nature would have presumably selected against mothers who positively disliked activity taking place around the tummy and selected for mothers who love to nurse — and then it would generalize.
Do human enjoy this kind rub when they grow up? Today I pat a small dog, then the other dog owner carried her dog up for me to pat: “she also need a pat”, after a while, when I tried to leave, the dog barked the same way as the young deer yelled … 🙂
S/he was probably hungry. I also wonder if there was an injury somewhere that might have hurt when the nice man tried to set her down.