It's Jingle all the way at Stoney Oaks

CHRIS HILLOCK/Taranaki Daily News

FEEDING TIME: Owner Gail Simons gives day-old fawn Jingle her dinner at Stoney Oaks Wildlife Park. Abandoned by her mum, Jingle will be hand-reared.

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A new addition has brought some early Christmas cheer to Inglewood's Stoney Oaks Wildlife Park.

Red deer fawn Jingle came feet-first into the world on Thursday night – with a little help from park owner Trevor Simons.

"Trevor had to pull her out and give her a couple of pats like any newborn," his wife, Gail, said yesterday.

While the bundle of gangly limbs and spotted fur drew smiles all round when the Taranaki Daily News visited, Mrs Simons said Jingle's mother had been anything but impressed by the fawn's unorthodox arrival.

"Mum doesn't want to know her after having such a hard time getting her out," she said.

"We left them alone for a while but she just wasn't interested."

However, Jingle seemed to have taken the rejection in her wobbly stride, making herself at home in the garage and following her owner around the yard.

"She already thinks she's a person," Mrs Simons said.

"If she'd been with her mum she wouldn't be coming near us."

Jingle will be hand-fed for the next four or five months and will be moved in with other deer by the time she is a year old.

"Unless we have another fawn abandoned by its mother, she'll spend most of her time with us," Mrs Simons said.

- © Fairfax NZ News