ORIGINAL: bluebird2
The doe allocations were dropped considerably after only two years in many cases yet the herd has not rebounded. The problem lies with fawn recruitment and the root cause is not the much reduced doe tag allocations
In 2001 when we had 1.5 M PS deer they allocated 780K antlerless tags. After the herd had been reduced by 30-40% they issued 869,000 tags ,plus 20-30K DMAP tags in 2007. The only reason we have much lower fawn recruitment is because we have harvested too many doe.
i believe you are right,only because i cant find to many reasons other than that for less fawns or no fawns.
here is what i see in wmu2g.
we had fawns lets say 15 years ago.
i noticed then that we only shot old doe.
now, its fill tags with any doe and fawn.
next, we did not have coyotes,i never saw coyote print until around 1996 area.
we only had 3 days of doe and only county wide licenses.
back then MOST of hunters never shot a fawn.
today, its BROWN ITS DOWN WITH DOE/DMAP TAG.
they even call a fawn a FURBALL AFTER SHOOTING IT.
we have more bears than ever before, penn state says bears are killing fawns too.
where the doe are somewhat protected, we have fawns.
i have 3 fawns for 3 doe in my yard, yet i observed 3 doe where i hunt and NO FAWNS.
difference, no coyotes/bears /bobcats.
some say FOOD,that could be reason also but i really dont have anymore food than apples in summer than in woods.
also this is very important, MY DEER DONT STAY IN MY YARD IN WINTER, THEY GO UP ON HILL ON STATEFORESTLAND TO LIVE OUT WINTER.
yet, the few deer i get in spring, will have 2 or 3 fawns.
but not ones in woods..
i still feel its like DR.ALT said to me with state rep hanna at our table.
he said, SPROUL BY HAVING THE EARLY OCT SEASON FOR DOE WE WILL REDUCE THE FAWN RECURITMENT .
he said also, for this to work the hunters must not shoot a fAWN.
he also said,SPROUL SHOOT OLD DOE.
reason for that is older doe are ones that have fawns.
so, if we are killing the older doe and fawns and anything that moves, i expect the fawn numbers have to decline.
i really believe with numbers of doe left that FOOD is not what is causing less fawns to be born.
we had lots of food last few years and very few fawns, it has to be something else causing it.