Originally Posted By: BhamFred
if it's the fawn that picks THE place to hide why do younger does have a higher fawn loss than older fawns? Seems it's more on the doe than the fawn.


One theory, and I believe one of the best theories, concerns the territoriality of does and their social dominance status at fawning time. Doe social groups break up at fawning time with each pregnant doe finding, establishing, and defending her own fawning territory. Does higher on the dominance list (older does) get first choice of fawning territories, while does lower on the social ladder (younger does) get "whatever is left over," which usually involves lower quality fawning territory. These lower-quality fawning areas may be lower quality because of a lack of good cover, hence fawns from the younger, less dominant does would fall to preditors more often, as they are attempting to hide in poorer quality cover habitat.