ORIGINAL: jcchartboy
"All deer that are born every year are 50% does and 50% bucks"
Not true...
As a doe gets older she tends to only have does.
Also not true...
--------------
The simple facts is that deer like most mammals produce more male offspring than female offspring under normal circumstances. Individual states or areas may vary, however on average throughout their range whitetail deer produce 106 malesfor every 100 females born.
There aretwo major exceptions to this rule. One occurs in areas where the herd has not reached carrying capacity of the land and the females are exceptionally well nourished. Inthis case the whitetails does will give birth to a proponderence of female fawns. The other exception is where the herd is on a starvation diet and not surprisingly the does give birth to a preponderence of buck fawns.
In New York State most habitat would be considered less than ideal in terms of population carrying capacity vs current population. This would likely skew the ratio further toward more buck fawn production if in fact there is any skew at all.
Further adding to the ratio of buck to doe fawns in areas where the overall buck to doe ratio is very low, is the fact that does that are bred late in last stages of their estrous cycle are more likely to give birth to buck fawns.
In summation...The ratio of buck to doe fawns actual favors the production of moremale fawns than females.
This is on a seperate note unrelated to the AR thread, but it is worth mentioning. There is evidence of birthing traits on m/f birth % as a doe ages. However, there are studies that explain exactly as JCC stated.
FYI JCC, I wish I could give a firm number with evidence, but I remember hearing from a few biologiststhat roughly 30-40% of NY is good habitat for deer (namely the farmlands of WNY, and some sections down towards your end of the state), another 30-40% is not ideal (adirondacks). The remainder is in the middle. I think the mix balances the state as a whole, which the biologists made a point of at last year's seasonal change meetings relating to DMP numbers.
The birthing habits of does is extremely interesting believe it or not. I'd venture to say there is as much information (and misinformation) on that subject that any other facet of deer biology beyond the rut. JCC found some good info there.