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Pregnant Doe

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Joined
Dec 23, 2018
Messages
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Location
Western Pennsylvania
Next door neighbor shot a doe Friday night behind the house and discovered a fawn about the size of his palm. He said of all the deer he has taken that was a first for him, I've never seen one in any of my doe or maybe I just never noticed one, I just shuck all that to the side and never study it.
Has anyone else ever come across this?
 
Next door neighbor shot a doe Friday night behind the house and discovered a fawn about the size of his palm. He said of all the deer he has taken that was a first for him, I've never seen one in any of my doe or maybe I just never noticed one, I just shuck all that to the side and never study it.
Has anyone else ever come across this?
Yes, probably a third of the does I take. The fetus is easy to miss, because as you said, it's a big ol mess that just gets dumped to the side
 
The thing about shooting does that gets me every now and then is milk in their udders. Most does are dry in the fall and winter, but some, probably a third of the ones I shoot, have some milk. It is a little odd, along with the heavy webbing. Just makes me cut and run all the faster
 
Next door neighbor shot a doe Friday night behind the house and discovered a fawn about the size of his palm. He said of all the deer he has taken that was a first for him, I've never seen one in any of my doe or maybe I just never noticed one, I just shuck all that to the side and never study it.
Has anyone else ever come across this?
Yes. More commonly when I've hunted in Florida for some reason.
 
The doe I shot yesterday afternoon had twins in her uterus. This is the muzzleloader season that hits in early January, so the chance of coming across embryos that are well developed is fairly high. In all actuality, our general firearms season is the first Monday after Thanksgiving, which means those same embryos we see now were already conceived and in utero then, too, after the rut, we just don't notice them at that early stage. I've killed one buck and one doe this season. Technically, I've taken out 4 deer from the population, though. As a hunter and conservationist I know this and accept it as my role in the ecosystem. We still have one of the best wildlife management models to work with. Far better then when it was unregulated and market driven year round.
 
I haven’t hunted doe, but if it was a legal hunt, I would not give the kill more thought than the melancholy I always feel when I kill and the respect for the animal and it’s life. We are the apex predators in the U.S. Biologists help us successfully manage the populations, beyond that the cougar or the bear doesn’t discriminate. Besides my human constructs the obligatory predators are my model. That said, finding this would give me pause.
 
Well, it's a future buck, but taking deer out of the picture for next year, reduces browsing competition, improving everything from songbird nesting habitat which is reduced by overbrowsing, creates a decrease in food for predators, making it more difficult for their litters to survive as their weaning coincides with the fawn crop, and by a reduction in browsing competition with a thinner herd, you have better nutrients for the deer you do have, which amounts to greater growth and development in the younger bucks, getting their bone densities ahead of the game for the following year when his body begins devoting less nutrients to bone growth and filling out his spindly frame and begins having more of these nutrients left over for greater antler devolopment.

So, in short, you did cause a reduction in next years fawn crop, but you also strengthened your little section of the habitat...and if it was a buck fawn, it wouldn't have ended up living on your property anyway, since you have the fact that the majority of yearling bucks get driven out of their home range by the maternal doe herd and end up relocating up to 3 miles in an aspect of deer behavior that conveniently, yet unbeknownst to the deer theirselves, prevents imbreeding in future years and further strengthens their gene pool (i call it intelligent design, although biologists don't). So it's not like that buck would was likely to have ended up residing on your property in the long run...sometimes things that are sad on the small scale, end up good overall.
 
I don’t know if it was propaganda, but I remember being taught that here in AZ at the Grand Canyon, hunting was completely and enforcedly outlawed. After a harsh winter and a natural culling and great suffering of the deer population, Theodore Roosevelt realized his error and re-opened hunting near the national park.
 
When I first started hunting 35 seasons back my Aunt and Uncle over reacted, saying it is a sin to shoot does. Back then we had to have a special permit to shoot a doe. The herd was still growing. Or had grown to carrying capacity but ODNR was cautious to regulate less stringently for fear of the public backlash. Now they cannot get enough hunters afield. The population is plenty strong in SW Ohio for the amount of permits one can purchase.
Decades ago I quit shooting groundhogs unless property damage is involved because the Coyote predation severely reduced their numbers. I'll regulate my actions when necessary. If I thought and witnessed a marked decrease in the deer population then does wouldn't be targeted. That's just not the case where I hunt.
 
Too many doe,s creates a second rut because of the buck-doe ratio and all the does not getting bred creates the second rut which is BAD management if it happens. You need to keep the does shot off..if thats happening....Shooting a pregnant doe it depends on the ratio in your area..and factors of winter kill and coyotees killing fawns,,lots of factors play into the ratio.Use you best judgement on the herd/crop maintainance for your area.2 year old does should get bred if its right in the ratio. I kill the white face does with no fawns ive seen run the same path for years until she has n fawn with her. Fawns 8 month old ones are expendable if theres 2 also..They Can get shot...the old does will have more food and be more than likely to throw 2 more fawns.
 
MY pro pic is real ,,perfect catagory less than 11 points boone n crocket deductions.I live for deer n hunting life of whitetails changing my life to do the ultimate pursuit.40 years never going without a 8 point plus bigger.I know the deer
 

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