this year's fawn recruitment

[bueller]

Another month long soak of trail cameras and very few fawns captured. And no sets of twins. I run cameras in the same spots year after year. I've never seen such a lack of fawns during the summer. I noticed it early but held off judgement until more recently. Don't know if it was the heavy snow late winter / early spring or what. Haven't heard any other talk of it as the overall deer numbers have rebounded reasonably well the last couple years. No one will notice until next year that there is a "hole" in the year class much like when fish species have an unsuccessful spawn in a particular year. Fingers crossed that this winter goes smoother because if we go back to back like this the population will be back WAY down 2-3 years out.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

This is weird because we are going through the exact opposite this year.

 

[bueller]

Early on we didn't get much snow but over 30" fell in April. And March was COLD. Don't really remember if the cold hit early but I think it did.

 

[SwampCat]

I am a long ways from you - so it doesnt compare - but I would say my fawn recruitment numbers are around .3 fawns per doe this year. Normally around .5 to .6 fawns per doe. But, we had a decent fawn crop last year - just over .6 - so we have quite a few year old does in the population which dont normally have fawns down here - so I think our data is skewed a little to the low side because of the high percentage of young does in the population. Theoretically, our fawn recruitment numbers will correct themselves next year.

 

[Apple Junkie]

Of the four or five "regulars" (does that is) that show up on the trail cam, one has a single fawn, and one has twins. All the fawns first showed up in May, and all are still around and doing great. Although this is a small sample size, so far no predation or health issues. We get a lot off of snow of Lake Erie (100+ inches), but our temps do not get as low as you guys in MN, WI, or the Dakotas. I think having some corn fields around helps with winter feeding too, they're always scratching up a kernal or two. Knock on wood, I don't see any drop off in sight.

 

[bueller]

I'm thinking it's a local issue here in the Central Forest of WI, and maybe up north. We don't have the fertile ground and ag fields that the nearby farmland zones do. I ALWAYS have a good number of fawns including twins on camera each year. This year not only are the fawns lacking but I have groups of 3-4 doe with no fawns in the group. Driving around the local area I've seen very few also.

 

[Peeps]

We also had the heavy snow at the very end of winter with a delayed spring. I thought it would hurt our future fawns but I have had several pairs of twins with many singles. I usually only see one set of twins around my house. I know my local deer up there were being fed consistently all winter and not with corn but a commercial high protein mix. I’m thinking that this may be why they did so good because it got nasty up there during late winter and spring.

 

[Peeps]

I have no ag fields around me and usually I have several does that don’t have fawns. This year they almost all have at least 1 tagging along. I think that feed gave them a boost.

 

[bueller]

I don't think the winterkill was bad. Just that the doe aborted or otherwise lost the young ones they were carrying in March-April. No increased sightings or increased sign of predators outside of the ones we usually have.