Bowsite.com

late fawns/late cycle?

In my neck of the woods most does get bred November during the rut. As we all know some of the does do not get bred during that cycle for various reasons. They then go into full blown estrus again about a month later and can be bred then, and even sometimes a month after that.

So they have their fawns a month later than the rest of the does in the spring. Does this hinder those late does from having a full cycle to be ready to be impregnated again in November, or could it be pushed back a month for some?

I ask because I have seen more late fawns than normal this year in my area. Some are just losing their spots, and I even saw one nursing last week. Wondering if this can affect the upcoming rut, I may want to save some tricks for mid December.

My boss has pictures of a from fawn last week that still had bright white spots on it. Was a really small one and the doe it appears it was with looked really young.

Simple problem! You have too many does and not enough bucks. Where I hunt in the Midwest the buck to doe ratio is managed to 2 to 1! We actually have a fawn rut around Dec 1 and again Jan 1. All does are bred at the proper time (early Nov) with a balanced ratio and a certain number of fawns are also bred later! Good luck! C

PS: This is Midwest, prime ground but every where is different!

I'm no biologist, but my belief is that doe's cycles are started in November due to photoperiodism. If a doe misses being impregnated in first cycle, and re-cycles later, I would imagine that there wouldn't be any issue with normal cycle times the following year.

Similar ruminant mammals can breed back just a month or two after giving birth, so I don't see why a deer wouldn't resume normal cycle.

But who the hell knows?

While I certainly believe that does un-bred in November, as well as young-of-the-year does can be bred in December and January, I don't put too much stock in an actual secondary rut. It's sporadic, and nothing that I believe can be counted on. Just kind of a right place/right time thing

I've seen bucks tending small looking does in December, but it sure wasn't a rut fest like many articles paint

Now granted I'm not hunting highly managed ground either.

I watched a mature buck repeatedly half-interestingly bump a mature looking doe last year on December 30th. Something about that doe smelled different, as he was completely ignoring the other 35+ does on the field in favor of this one. And also interestingly, of the more than a dozen other bucks on the field, none of them paid any mind at all. The buck that was nudging her around was obviously dominant, but none of the sub-dominate bucks were pestering them, like you'd generally see in November.

Whether she wasn't bred, or naturally aborted a pregnancy. . . who the heck knows?

I've been around enough cattle that were bred, and naturally aborted a pregnancy, that I wonder how often it occurs in wild populations, especially with stress of predation, hunting pressure, slight wounds, poor mast, etc. etc.

Bake

What Bake said.

Register here to reply to this topic