Here's what I posted concerning this a few weeks ago.

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If you'll remember....I posted some photos of a few MD deer that a memeber of another site I visit (NC Deer) took while he was working with the MD Nat resources office (Not sure of the proper name for the entity) this past summer.

He'd posted on our state site about his doe he took here, Saturday morning....and how she had a fawn with her. I've been torn on this morally.....so I inquired to him about the question I had.....

Will the fawns survive....if I take out mama, now?

I'm posting his response......along with the response I got from my NCWRC Wildlife Biologist (Sent him the same question, yesterday). The answers cause another set of questions thatI'll delve into after you see them.

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GMMAT, I actually know Chris...we went to this past year's Southeast Deer Study Group together in Maryland. As for shooting does with fawns, they are perfectly capable of fending for themselves. I will say there is a lower chance of survival for the fawns, but it is not because of nutritional deficits caused by potentially removing their mother's milk. They are simply at higher risk of blundering out in front of someone's deer stand or getting whacked on the road without their mother's guidance. The doe I shot Saturday morning was, in fact, not producing milk anymore. She still had evident teets, but they were dried up - probably in the past couple of weeks. Shooting does at the end of the season when the fawns are grown doesn't do you any good in reducing your herd ratio for the current year's rut and also wastes several hundred pounds of food to a deer that could have been killed opening week rather than 3 months later. Shoot away.

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And then....This from our Wildlife Bio., Chris Kreh.


Fawns here in North Carolina are generally born in May and June, and they are no longer dependent on nursing with the doe when they are about 10 weeks old. Though they may continue supplemental nursing into the early bow season, they are fully capable of surviving on their own if the doe is harvested. The moral dilemma is more an issue of perception or misconception, rather than biology. There is no biological problem with harvesting does, even if they have fawns present, during the early bow season. The fawns will survive. I hope that helps. If you would like to discuss further, please don’t hesitate to give me a call at the number below.

Thanks,

Chris

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The side dilemma I have is......am I "really" doing the right thing by letting does with fawns "pass"? If overall herd reduction is my goal.....why not preserve the food these does will be consuming (if passed on) by taking them out, now? Why not ENSURE they are outof the breeding pool?

These are valid questions.