New fawns???

[BAK]

It was a great afternoon to be in the woods. I went out to move a ladder stand. Takes a bit of work to get one down/moved/back up again, especially for this old guys back.

On my way back home I came upon a doe that had just dropped a fawn. She was still licking it off. I got pretty close before she saw me and jumped away about 40 yards, and that darn newborn tried to follow her, but only about 10 feet, then it instinctively dropped to the ground and laid it's head down so it wouldn't be seen.

I just kept going and when I looked back they had already gotten back together.   

Based on gestation tables she was bread Oct. 20th.

[John Cholin]

That's awful early for around here in northern NJ and PA.  I usually see first sight of fawns in the last week of May.  We are told to expect snow and freezing rain tonight.  I would expect weather like that would kill a new-born fawn.

JMC

[Possum Head]

Interesting data. On the flip side down south some of our deer will breed now and their nimble legged fawns will be seen while I’m hunting the Christmas holidays

[Huntschool]

Our peak rut is during the 10 or so day span with Veterans Day in the middle.  Not that some are not bred before that and that some early breeding can occur, We usually look for fawns to start hitting the ground in the end of May or so with some does going as late as July which means that doe was bred during what most likely was the 3rd go round of estrus in January.  Some does producing this late could actually be early fawned females from that same year.

As to Possum Heads comment....  I have seen young of the year still with barely visible spots in early December here in Southernmost Illinois.  However, it sounds to me like there could be a terrible unbalance in the doe to buck ratio if this is more then an occasional occurrence.  Most does up here are covered by the December estrus (#2 estrus cycle) I find this very late birthing very interesting.   As an example, if memory serves me, we run about 1:12-1:16 bucks per does on open ground up here.

Just a thought