I mentioned this past spring that I would post the results of our fawn survival study at Fort Rucker when they were available. These data are from a 2-year study that a graduate student of mine conducted. She finished her thesis this summer, and the link below will take you to her thesis. The thesis is two chapters...the second chapter is the one that contains the information on the Fort Rucker study.

If you read the thesis, keep in mind that what we found at Fort Rucker is not representative of what is occurring everywhere in Alabama. There might be some locations that are experiencing similar things, but most properties will not be experiencing this...even though it may seem like it.

Happy reading.

Thesis - Fawn Survival

thanks Steve. Backs up what some of us have been saying for years.

troy

Good info Doc. Thanks for sharing it.

Eddie

Thanks for posting Doc. Very interesting and a really high rate of predation. Would it be plausible to assume that the variable of human interaction and resulting scent distribution within the study area or some other interaction variable may have concentrated the predation activity? I'm not trying to dispute the data presented, but trying to understand the controls within the study. Did some of the modeling used consider these types of variables? I'm of the opinion that yotes are making significant impacts to fawn recruitment.

Wow what explains all the small skeletons I find every year. We have a lot of yotes but not sure what to do about them. I've looked into trapping and the set-ups I've seen are complicated. I've seen several going after mature deer too. Any tips on control of yotes? (that is legal)

Angela's observations and conclusions in Chapter II certainly seem to have merit as they apply to the below-average deer density in the area of NE Tuscaloosa County where our lease is located. The one-size-fits-all antlerless season in Tuscaloosa County combined with a healthy coyote population is likely the reason I have seen only three deer there since the first of the year.



I'm a little worried that this may be the case for us. After all, it has been only a little over a decade since deer were restocked by the state in that area after the West Jefferson Public Hunting Area was created there.

Following the annual recommendations of the state biologist for killing antlerless deer that we have been given without the benefit of actual physical surveys on site may have been a mistake. It's hard to change people's minds when they have been told for so long by so many that the best way to manage deer is to kill plenty of does.

Maybe Angela's paper will help. Tell her thanks for me.

Trapping!

We have removed around 50 since turkey season.

trapping is the only thing that really puts a hurting on them.

you CAN call em and kill em, just use TWO gunners, at least one with a shotgun loaded with heavy shot for those close running yote. And NEVER miss one ya called.

sniping one now and then in deer season dosen't do much, but it is fun. NEVER let one walk.

What trap set-up do you use?

How? If someone tells me a good way to do it, I'll start tomorrow. I have never tried trapping anything. PM me if you like. Just please give me info on how you are doing so well trapping them.

This is a consistent question that we get. I would assume that our activities, and the scent that we leave at or near the scene would actually serve to deter predation. For it to increase predation, coyotes would have to be conditioned to note that whena human was in the woods, there is an increased chance of a meal. I doubt that is occurring. Second, I would think that the presence of human scent/activity in an area would actually serve to keep coyotes out of an area for at least a little bit. Considering how often fawns move from location to location (every 4-6 hours), I would think that they would be in a new area very quickly anyway.

Of course, this is pure speculation. But, we've gone down this thread of logic a hundred times, and each time we examine it, we still come out with the same conclusion...human activity at the site has a better chance of deterring coyote activity than enhancing it.

Contrary to the belief of many people on ALDEER, fawns do die from things other than coyotes. In fact, even in areas of high levels of predation, just as many fawns will die from malnourishment, abandonment, accidents, and diseases as they will from predation.

My point is...if you find a fawn skeleton, odds are just as great that it was not killed by a coyote. Additionally, if a coyote kills a fawn, you will not find a skeleton...only a bone here or there. So...if you are finding skeletons, odds are that coyotes are not causing the death.

We found a quality trapper and gave him a membership to the club. This is the easiest way IMO.

Chris was using bait holes with good back stops, walk throughs and scent posts. Our yotes were pretty easy, no trapping has taken place there before. We did have a couple of side diggers though. They got a extra sneaky set.

Doc, do you happen to have any similar information on poults?

Sorry. I don't have any information on effects of coyotes on turkeys. While I'm sure some good data exist on survival rates, I'm not familiar enough with the methods used to determine cause of death in turkeys to know how accurate they are in determining cause of death.

Thanks for the reply. If you ever come across any good info or studies on predation/survival rates of poults in the southeast please post it.

Survival and cause-specific mortality of wild turkey hens in central Mississippi

Predation rates on wild turkey hens in a hardwood bottomland forest and a mixed forest in Mississippi
DA Miller, GA Hurst… - The Journal of wildlife management, 1999 - JSTOR


Reproductive Effort and Success in a Declining Wild Turkey Population

COMPARISON OF PREDATION RATES ON WILD TURKEY HENS BETWEEN TWO FOREST ECOSYSTEMS IN MISSISSIPPI

Wild Turkey Reproductive Parameters from Two Different Forest Ecosystems In Central Mississippi

SEASONAL SPACE USE, HABITAT PREFERENCE A...HARDWOOD FOREST

Evaluation of Southeastern Coyote Diets During the Wild Turkey Reproductive Season

THE IMPACTS OF PREDATION ON WILD TURKEYS

Coyote, Canis latrans – Rio Grande Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo intermedia, Interactions

Wild turkey pre-flight poult habitat characteristics and survival

Thanks 49er!

i don't know , i hunted a place for years and we always gutted the deer where they dropped . lot of times we could kill a deer and just set there for a little and a coyote would come in . around the house now i bring the guts out and place them in a open field so the buzzards get them first .

the buzzards have learned this too . any thing and every thing i throw out that they'll eat goes in one spot . and that's every thing from dead yotes to fish guts . also i never put any thing there just before dark , i wait till the next morning .