Mule deer offspring

[Buckriser]

How many offspring will a typical mule deer doe have each spring? I typically think its one?

So while at work the other day; I looked out my office window and noticed in a field across the way, there were some deer out feeding. As I looked closer, I noticed it was a doe and three fawns. The three fawns would feed on the doe and then run around a bit and then feed again. Looks like this mamma had triplets. Pretty neat to see.

Not too many predators around in the city (except for vehicles) hopefully they all make it.

[Freebird134]

I think cervids almost always ovulate 2 eggs, which are almost always fertilized into two embryos (since like a jillion sperm are deposited). Whether those 2 embryos develop and are birthed depends on a lot of extraneous factors (stress, food, etc). But generally a female of the deer family drops 2. It's not imposible to have triplets, but more likely a female with 3 offspring nursing "acquired" a child. I had a job once watching pronghorn nursing bouts in Montana. The pronghorn were tagged at and watched before they dropped fawns, and were checked daily. We knew they dropped two fawns each. Yet, there were several females that suddenly were nursing 3 fawns. The third fawn often snuck in to feed, and if the female caught it she would kick it out. But there is a lot of confusion in a herd with small fawns running around, and it was not out of the ordinary to see 3 fawns feeding---and know they were not all hers!