Fawn survival

We had several does that were pregnant this Summer but only one that shows up regularly with a fawn. I don't want to shoot that particular doe since apparently she's the only one to have her fawn survive thus far but if by chance she does get shot, how much does that effect the fawns survival rate?

We have a doe that's around 4yrs old that has not had a fawn survive in the last 3 yrs, she's very noticeable as she has had a tumor on her left cheek for the last 3 yrs, and hoping to take her out this year, but she is very elusive.

Smart matriarch does are super hard to hunt

I have seen more fawns this year than in previous years

Told the story here, but we had a flop-eared doe that had triplets every year, and one year they were all three little knotheads. We made her off-limits...then one year she was just gone.

Make it known to all your members of your recent experience. Get them on your page. I found some tracks of a running doe and fawn the other day being chased by a yote. The yote epidemic is getting worse in my opinion.

So should we kill more does to help solve the problem? My uncle says to kill every one you see. Then he wonders why he doesn't see any.

My point is to not kill the does. If he ain't seeing does with fawns and usually he does see them, then there's a problem. I'm betting this liberal doe harvest will come to an abrupt end once the facts present themselves. We shall see.

The state refuses to make yotes a priority

I have not verified the claim, but a 'yote trapper said that a lactating female will eat a fawn a day to meet nutrition requirements. It sounds reasonable.

Not really. There's no way a 30 lb canine needs 5-10 lbs of food per day, even if she was a dariy yote producing listeria laced milk for Blue Bell ice cream.

I'd give it more time before making a call on fawn survival.....too early right now IMO.

We hunt a very small area, it's just me and my son but the surrounding property may have a few hunters as well. While we do have yotes, their doesn't seem to be a whole lot of them showing up on trail camera, usually just one occasionally. We do have a very large Bobcat and 2 pit bulls that roam over this way frequently.

I shoot the piss outta those pit bulls.

The deer activity has nearly tripled since the food plots have come up, deer are looking pretty thin this year.

We can only hope.....

On my land we havn't shot a doe in about 5 years and on club land I don't think there were but about 20 killed on 3600 acres last year.

Last year we shot one doe, the first that we have killed in several years, but the doe population has grown considerably since the last time one was killed. Only planning to kill one, maybe two does this year.
We usually have an influx of numerous young bucks that show up every year about a month before deer season starts and only one or two are seen by the time the rut comes around so if we need meat for the freezer we usually kill 2 of these and leave the does alone.
So far this year though the heat and dry weather has really done a number on the deer, but with the cooling temps(even though it's only a little cooler) and with the food plots coming up activity has increased.

One thing to remember, I hunt a very small amount of land, most of the deer we hunt don't bed on our property.

Fawn a week would be more like it

Should try hunting close to farmers with depredation permits. AND, they are shooting them when they are pregnant. I know that is the farmers livelyhood, but its definitely damaging the population in south covington county

A couple of Universities are doing coyote studies across several Southern states. 27 coyotes were caught and collared with GPS tracking collars near Anniston, Alabama, in 2014. One of those coyotes was tracked to a denning site, in the spring of 2015, and a camera was positioned to watch the den. In the first 30 days of filming, 17 deer fawns were brought back to the den.

This particular study was being done by University of South Carolina. Rusty Johnson of Georgia, and Mark June of Texas, were the trappers that caught and collared the 27 coyotes.

When I had goats, they would kill one baby every two- three days until I got them. I hate them with a passion.

Back to the original question, if the doe is killed how negatively will it effect the fawn's survival chances?

depends on the age of the fawn, loss of the doe will for sure negatively affect the survival rate of the fawns. Older fawns, beyond nursing will still be affected in areas such as food sources and bedding areas, and making good survival choices on those areas.

Younger fawns, still nursing, chances go down dramatically for all of the above reason plus the rumen may not of changed to digest other than milk food sources. If the rumen hasn't started to change the fawn is a dead deer walking. Shoot the momma on a small nursing fawn and you have just killed her fawns.

Thanks Bham, I had trail pics today of the fawn feeding in my food plot.