# Numbers of fawns this year.



## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

Did anyone else notice less fawns this year in the northern part of the state?

Could the wet cold temps up here in May and June have taken out a lot of them?

I saw a lot of does with no fawns this year.I know we lost a lot of upland bird chicks during hatching time.And calves born in wet cold comditions can die from pneumonia.

Could the GNF have overestimated the population up here?


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## MOSSBACK (Jun 10, 2004)

Yes, I noticed an alarming number of does without fawns in my hunting area. I don't know if they did not get bred or coyotes were hard on fawns or if they were aborted because of heavy snows in some areas. probably all of these things were a factor.

As far a the G&F goes they look at the big picture total number of deer not sex or age or anything like that. Plus alot of deer don't make it after their areial surveys. Some deer come from many miles to winter so some pockets do get over hunted by man and natural preditors.

Any way I have noticed alot of dry does in my area the last few years.


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## north14 (Oct 1, 2004)

Lots of lone does in the Upham area too, I think last winter had a lot to do with it. Usually where we bowhunt in the fall we'll only see one dry doe or none at all per year, this year it was at least 40 to 50 % of them.


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## mallard (Mar 27, 2002)

In the area I hunt 2F1,I only seen 3 fawns over 2 months of hunting.The locals told me that the coyote numbers are way up and the overwelming opinion is that they are preying heavily on fawns.Normally we see at least 60 or 70 fawns while rifle hunting.


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## 6162rk (Dec 5, 2004)

I CAN TELL YOU THAT I BELIEVE THAT THERE WERE WAY LESS FAWNS IN CENTRAL MN. THIS YEAR. WEATHER AND COYOTES.


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## zogman (Mar 20, 2002)

A pack of 8 wolves walked thru a resort at the NW Angle over the new year. Pretty bold!!!!!!!!!!! The deer might take a beating up there this winter. Plus there is about 18 inches of snow there now. And yes we saw less fawns this past summer.


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## BenelliBlaster (Mar 17, 2002)

I don't know if I agree with you guys totally. Seemed like in the area I hunt all I saw was fawns during the season. Took me a while till I found a nice doe to take. I saw many twins with mothers and even a few sets of triplets probably.


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## dblkluk (Oct 3, 2002)

Our property SE of Minot is loaded with the little buggers! Just about every doe had a pair with her throughout the season. I 'm thinking there was one too many, as a yearling cost me a shot at a 150 class buck last week!!  
We didn't have quite the rain you guys up there had this year. Might be why... who knows??


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## MOSSBACK (Jun 10, 2004)

mallard said:


> In the area I hunt 2F1,I only seen 3 fawns over 2 months of hunting.The locals told me that the coyote numbers are way up and the overwelming opinion is that they are preying heavily on fawns.Normally we see at least 60 or 70 fawns while rifle hunting.


Yeah, Mallard I hunt 2f1 born and raised there. The last two years I think the fawn mortality from coyotes is very high in my little hunting area by our farm.

I heard the mange is bad on them dirty bastards this year I hope they all die. However the two yotes I got while deer hunting were in nice shape.

I am going coyote hunting next weekend :sniper: :run:


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

I know I have been saying this since last June when I didn't see very many fawns. The winter was just to long and hard last year, the fawn were aborted so the doe could live.


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

Could be a combination of tough winter,coyotes,and poor survival rate during May and June.

Whatever the reason...I saw groups of does and fawns with more does than fawns.This has never been as evident as the past year.

One thing about the coyotes...they do keep the fox population down which are huge predators on nesting gamebirds.So it kind of becomes....more deer or more gamebirds.


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## Maverick (Mar 4, 2002)

In the area I hunt there wasn't a problem finding a fawn, doe or buck to shoot! Hell I went spearing 2 days ago and as soon as we got off the asphalt we saw 2 herds of deer. First one had 4 bucks in it( all still had their antlers). The other had about 40 deer in it!


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