Sylvan

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 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 would be quite misleading to use a “mid or late season perceived ratio” as “THE doe to buck ratio”.

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:

- NO females die until they are 5 ½ years old
- ALL 1 ½ year old or older males die either during or shortly after hunting season ends
- All mature females give birth to 1 buck and 1 doe fawn

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.

farm hunter

Yep - You nailed it.

Unfortunately the Perceived ratio is the one talked about most often "around the watercooler".

FH