No Fawns

[Smoore12]

I purchased some land earlier this year and have been watching the deer the better part of this year. I have one stud buck on camera and a few spikes. I have roughly 6 does wandering around and not a single fawn. I have a lot of hogs and have seen 1 coyote on camera. Would it be safe to assume predators are the main reason there are no fawns? Do hogs kill them also? I had planned on after deer season to hit the predators and hogs very hard. Maybe I will see some fawns next year if I put a dent in them?

[BURTONboy]

Hear at our house its the same thing every year. See 4-5 does and 1 fawn. But then yesterday morning I was leaving and saw the does and there were multiple fawns with them. Maybe a different group, as there are 2-3 groups around, but I was happy and surprised to see them. Now im wondering if they are that good at hiding fawns and just never really bring them around? If so, possibly the same thing at your place?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[PondPopper]

Yep and Yep..

[Jon B]

Shoot every hog, yote and bobcat you see. It definitely won't hurt the fawn population.

[Greenheadless]

If you are pointing your camera towards a feeder, fawns usually stay camera shy until they get old enough to actually eat corn.

[PassnItOn]

Agree, cams on corn don't tell the story.

[Smoore12]

My cameras are on trails. Deer won’t touch corn.

[PassnItOn]

Hmmm, the only other thing I can offer is that we thought the same last year and then when season rolled around it seemed every doe had a yearling with her. Don't know if they had them hid a lot as fawns or what. Regardless, never hurts to do a little hog eradication and predator control.

Congrats on the property purchase!

[Antlers86]

My cameras are on trails. Deer won’t touch corn.

I have never known an area where deer won’t touch corn!

Kill bobcats, coyotes and hogs any chance you get.

[deerdynasty]

we are amazed how they hide fawns. no fawns for months then one day u will see 10. nature at its finest. kill all coyotes and pigs as mentioned. trap coyotes hard before fawns drop.. 6 coyotes trapped probably saves 6 fawns...

[Smoore12]

I shouldn’t say never, they haven’t yet. Only had the property since March. Of course, I stopped counting after 200 persimmon trees. Majority young, possibly males. I’ve counted 20 with persimmons on them. Lots of muscadine, too. Maybe they’re happy with that. I guess the M1A is gonna have to take some piggies out and pray for proof of fawns next year.

[Greenheadless]

I have never known an area where deer won’t touch corn!

Kill bobcats, coyotes and hogs any chance you get.

I had this issue when I was overrun with hogs. Come to find out, the hogs were running all the deer off.

I fenced out my feeders and within hours, I had deer in the pens.

I still have deer that wont go anywhere near a feeder though, but will lap up hand corn.

[Smoore12]

I had this issue when I was overrun with hogs. Come to find out, the hogs were running all the deer off.

I fenced out my feeders and within hours, I had deer in the pens.

I still have deer that wont go anywhere near a feeder though, but will lap up hand corn.

I put a 12 panel pen up. Still nothing. A hog actually climbed in lmao. So I guess my last resort is killing.

[doghouse]

I have a road feeder and feed every day. Been doing it for at least ten years. Fawns just now getting old enough to join their mom eating corn.

[Deerguy]

Low fawns recruitment is usually a good thing in most places as it keeps the population from becoming excessive. You're obviously getting enough recruitment to sustain the population, so there is probably nothing to really worry about. Too many deer often leads to decreased recruitment. Predators often get blamed, but predation rarely limits prey populations. After all, the number of predators merely mimics what the prey population is doing. It's a cycle that efficiently maintains itself. Truly low fawn recruitment is usually due to insufficient fawning cover. Predations and death from exposure increase substantially in the absence of adequate and suitable cover. It is NOT a predator problem (predators are needed for many reasons), but rather it is a habitat and habitat management problem.