There is no question that bears, coyote, bobcat, fox and even raccoon will kill new born fawns when they stumble onto them or otherwise find one they can catch pretty easily. It is also a fact that where fawns have suitable habitat predation is not a significant factor in limiting deer populations. Fawn predation can be significant where deer don’t have suitable ground cover or under story though. So, fawn survival rates are pretty much a matter of the habitat being able to support more deer or not. If the habitat can’t support more deer it is a blessing for the future of the species if a higher percentage of the fawns fall victim to predation.

People also prey on fawns. I know of several fawns that are now dead because people captured them and took them home. In fact, I will be filing charges on one such case next week and have another active investigation of a car load of teenagers catching a fawn, putting it in a car and taking off. I’m still working on that one.

All bears get two tags the first time they are captured. Bears, especially males, tend to fight and rip tags out, so we put one in each ear to make sure it they lose one we still have one to allow us to collect the past capture history. If we catch a bear with a tag missing we replace it with a new tag. I just caught a 250 pound male with one tag missing a couple weeks ago. He left with one old tag and one new tag.

R.S. Bodenhorn