ORIGINAL: bluebird2
ORIGINAL: White-tail-deer
Numbers crunching.... Could it be our old friend?
Do you really believe there is only one hunter in PA that can add,subtract ,multiply and divide PGC stats? RSB posts reams of data and provides his misguided interpretations of that data on several message boards including thiss one. But even he can't explain why breeding rates and productivity have decreased as the herd has been reduced.
RSB says its bad habitat that is causing less fawns.
the older doe are just not out there anymore,they were ones with fawns.
now we have very young doe left.
PREDATORS are making impact on fawns as we just dont have deer here in WMU2G to make up for loss.
i have owl in my yard, he has killed over 11 of my rabbits this year, thats in 3 months.
he also killed my bluebirds, many pigeons and many grouse.
i never in my life seen so many predators as i do now.
we stocked 50 birds for kids to pheasant hunt.
in 1 week, only 1 bird was left. yes,1 bird..30 years ago those birds would last all season.we had fox trapping then and bountys.
same with fawns, you have less deer so you have less fawns.
many adult doe are shot in late muzzleloader that had fawns ,i know i heard of hunters saying they saw fawns when cleaned out.
then throw in bears, coyotes, bobcats, fischers, yes, fischers are now killing fawns.
we never had those coyotes as we do now,they are bigtime fawn killer.
i dont feel its HABITAT that is causing less fawns,you have all these things going on now..
most of late muzzleloader hunters 30 years ago would PASS on doe in my area.
they only hunted a buck,now, they shoot doe.