I personally think the deer are just sad because they know they are being mismanaged, and just aren't in the mood to do it. Ever just not been in the mood? Or they figure why bother? The PGC wants us all dead anyhow, might as well make it easy on them.

Seriously, though probably has more to do with the reduced herd overall, less bucks and less does, spread over a broader region means more travel time for bucks between receptive does, meaning less getting bred overall. However, since this rate never declined prior to HR we know that the herd was not to the point of nature controlling the herd, due to the stress of reduced browse affecting them nutritionally. The deer were healthy and fine in the majority of the state. The fact that the breeding rates did not decline till post HR proves that. The real mystery is in embryo counts and why that declined as the herd was reduced. Science tells us that the embryo count should have increased as the herd was reduced IF the herd was nutritionally stressed. More food, less deer = healthier deer, right?