buckeyebuckhntr, I guess you didn't see my post...

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[This has been posted before but I thought it might be appropriate for this discussion]

With regard to doe:buck ratios.....

The term doe to buck ratio is thrown around a lot but it’s a number that needs to be qualified in order to be understood. There are actually 3 distinctly different doe:buck ratios that are of significance. They are total, mature and perceived. Total is the ratio of all females to males, mature is all sexually mature females to sexually mature males and perceived which is what most hunters generally mean when they use the term. The perceived ratio is not a doe:buck ratio at all but rather the ratio of antlered to non-antlered deer. These 3 ratios are quite different and are most meaningful only in their proper context. For example if your talking about breeding, the mature ratio is of more significance than perceived and inversely if you are talking about hunter satisfaction, the perceived is more meaningful.

Another EXTREMELY important qualification in regard to understanding the doe:buck ratio term is WHEN in the yearly cycle it is being applied. A 4:1 ratio just before hunting season opens can easily become 15 or 20 to 1 by the end of the season so it can be quite misleading to use a mid or late season perceived ratio as THE doe to buck ratio. Especially during hunting season and especially in heavily hunted areas the doe:buck ratios can change a lot and they can change fast.

You will often hear hunters talk about the doe:buck ratio being 9 or 10 to 1 in there area but to put in perspective how misleading this statement can be, consider this. If in a population of whitetail deer we make the following assumptions. These assumptions will tend to make the doe:buck ratio as high as possible:

- NO females die until they are 5 ½ years old
- ALL 1 ½ year old males are killed during hunting season
- All mature females give birth to 1 buck and 1 doe fawn that survive to 1 1/2 and 5 1/2 respectively

then the following is a mathematical certainty for the beginning of hunting season:

- Total doe:buck = 1.61
- Total mature doe:buck = 2.57
- Total perceived doe:buck = 5.71

Because this scenario will tend to make these ratios as high as possible we can say that in any realistic scenario, the total doe:buck ratio can not exceed 1.61 at the beginning of the season.

Please think about all this when you use the term doe:buck ratio.
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You see, even the perceived ratio can't exceed 6 to 1 at the beginning of the season.

Assuming 1 doe and 1 buck birth on average for adult doe, the only way it is possible to get to 12:1 perceieved ratio at the beginning of hunting season is if there is a much higher mortality rate for male fawns than female. Like I said in the example for tocs "If you accept that the average adult doe gives birth to 1 buck and 1 doe in the spring time, and non hunting mortality is roughly equal between doe and buck then it is mathmatically not possible to have doe:buck ratios of 12:1 at the beginning of hunting season." This isn't my opinion it is mathmatical certainty.