28/05/2025
The other day I shared a reel of an elk calf, and many people mistook it for a deer fawn. It’s an easy mix-up, so I put together a side-by-side comparison to help highlight the differences. The first two photos are of elk calves. The first shows a newborn, and the second is a slightly older calf. The third and fourth photos are of mule deer fawns, with the third being a newborn and the fourth a few weeks old. If you look closely, you’ll notice key differences in size, ear shape, and spot patterns. Those oversized “muley” ears are one of the easiest ways to tell a mule deer fawn apart from an elk calf.
Elk calves are much larger at birth, weighing around 30-40 pounds, compared to the teeny 4-8 pound mule deer fawns. Elk calves are usually born from late May to mid-June, while mule deer fawns tend to arrive a little later, from early to mid-June into early July at higher elevations.
