UNDERSTANDING WHITE-TAILED DEER PRODUCTIVITY: POPULATION ECOLOGY OF NEONATES

Troy W. Grovenburg, Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, South Dakota State University, Brookings.

Abstract:   Knowledge of survival rates and cause-specific mortality of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) is important for population management.  Telemetry studies of deer have indicated that mortality differs seasonally and regionally with age, sex, and density (Brinkman et al. 2004).  Knowledge of neonate mortality rates is critical to understanding how preseason mortality rates will affect deer harvest (Porath 1980).  Factors that can contribute to the vulnerability of white-tailed deer fawns to mortality include date of parturition, nutritional condition, disease, maternal age, dam-neonate behavior, predation and habitat quality.  Survival and cause-specific mortality of neonate white-tailed deer has been well documented in farmland Minnesota, eastern South Dakota, the central Black Hills of South Dakota, and the southern Black Hills of South Dakota; however, no direct spatial or temporal survival information exists for white-tailed deer neonates in north central South Dakota.  Deer in this region of the Northern Great Plains have significantly larger migration distances (19.4 km) compared to other populations in eastern South Dakota (10.1 km) and Minnesota (10.1 km, 14.6 km).  Because survival generally declines with increase in migration distance, information on survival of neonate deer is in need to populate models for management and to understand the inter relationships of age, movement, habitat, and density of deer. 

Brinkman, T. J., J. A. Jenks, C. S. DePerno, B. S. Haroldson, and R. G. Osborn.  2004.  Survival        of white-tailed deer in an intensively farmed region of Minnesota.  Wildlife Society Bulletin 32: 726-731.

Porath, W. R.  1980.  Fawn mortality estimates in farmland deer range.  Pages 55-63 in R. L.   Hine and S. Nehls, editors.  White-tailed deer population management in north central states.  North Central Section of The Wildlife Society.