White-tailed deer are prolific breeders, meaning they have the potential to reproduce and grow local deer populations quickly over just a few years. The majority of whitetail does will give birth to twin fawns each and every year after their first birth, when they usually have just a single fawn. One of the biggest deer management issues in many areas, both suburban and rural, continues to be deer overpopulation and the resulting degradation of habitat. It would seem that deer are in large numbers everywhere, but the fact is they are not. Many hunters often encounter animals in the field that appear to be barren deer, does without fawns. So what gives?

“Is there such a thing as a barren doe? I believe there is, as I have shot quite a few does in the 115 to 130 pound-plus weight range that have no signs of ever lactating; very small nipples, no evidence of ever having a milk bag. The nipples, as well as milk bag, are tight to the belly as to have never produced. I have friends that argue the barren doe thing, but I am convinced that there is such a thing. My theory is that they come into heat, get bred, but are sterile and do not take. Could you clear this up please? Thank you.”

Although some number of barren does can inevitably be found somewhere, they are very rare, comprising less than one percent of the doe population. Research on free-ranging whitetail deer has found that does bred when less than a year of age (fawns basically) normally produced a single fawn, with 10 percent of these animals bearing twin fawns. Older does average almost two fawns each annually; about 60 percent have twins, 30 percent have single fawns, 3 percent have triplets and 7 percent have complications that result in no fawns being produced. However, the overwhelming majority of “non-performers” are not barren and can go on to successfully produce fawns in the future.

Using the numbers above, this means that about 160 fawns are born for every 100 does in the population. This shows just how prolific white-tailed deer can be, but it’s important to remember that just because fawns were birthed does not mean that they will survive. Habitat quality, as in protective/hiding cover for fawns, and food availability, for lactating does, is extremely important for recruiting fawns into the adult deer population. This is where many properties fall short: inadequate deer habitat.

Source: “Failure of does to breed is not a problem, so where do the fawns go? Life is full of dangers for a fawn, and food and cover (fawning habitat) is the difference in living and dying for fawns. In many parts of the state, predation is severe unless there is adequate hiding cover for young fawns. Imported fire-ants are a problem for fawns in heavily infested areas, but their impact can often mask the real problem. Adequate deer nutrition is often limiting, and if fawns make it past fire-ants and predators to weaning, they still face the challenge of finding food and cover.

Fawn survival depends primarily on habitat quality. Malnutrition and associated problems are probably responsible for poor fawn survival in much of the state. Dry conditions aggravate the problem of inadequate food. “Empty belly disease” is the most limiting factor on whitetails in Texas. Delayed rutting and breeding could cause fawns to be born late, which would be a disadvantage on ranges where food is scarce.”

In short, observing does without fawns is not a barren doe issue. A large number of does without fawns by their sides, especially those in good physical condition, is an indicator of other deer management issues. Although the most common limiting factor of deer populations in many areas is a lack of deer habitat management, or more bluntly stated, poor habitat quality, I don’t believe this is the case in the situation presented by the questioner above.

In Texas, does with body weights of 115 to 130 pounds would be considered quite healthy. When deer have good, healthy body weights, one would expect the habitat to also be in good condition and that fawn recruitment would be high. In the case above, it’s suspected that predators could be the problem rather than inadequate nutrition. Providing good deer habitat typically alleviates predator issues in whitetail, but there have been instances when predators at extreme numbers, particularly within high-fenced ranches, can become a serious deer management issue. Barren does are not the problem, but predator numbers very well could be.

The white-tailed deer hunting season will be ending shortly, so there’s no better time than right now to employ a few late season deer hunting tips and tactics to bag that last-second buck. In Texas, many hunters take time off between Christmas and New Year’s in anticipation of putting deer on the ground, but whitetail bucks that have made it this far into the deer hunting season are well educated. Still, no need to panic. Careful planning combined with the wise use of time in the field can still result in a successful deer hunt.

The hunting season has been on for a while and the deer are most definitely in the know. Patterns are extremely important to them. Not so much their patterns, but the patterns of hunters. A deer knows that the sound of a four wheeler running or a truck door closing means a hunter is in the area. Deer will stick with moving very early, before sunrise, and then after mid-morning, when most hunters have long left the field. It’s time to change things up. First, be quiet.

Next, be flexible. By late season, even young deer realize that bad things can happen to good deer that hang out too close to deer stands and deer feeders. Older deer will be on full alert and will avoid all of them. Instead of jumping into your stand out of habit, find a travel corridor and catch whitetail moving around your setup. Deer move even when you are not seeing them from your stand, they just know how to avoid the average hunter by late season. Deer will not expect you to be somewhere else, out of your stand. Put the wind in your favor and you will see deer.

Another great late season deer hunting tip is to watch the moon. Deer naturally become more nocturnal, feeding during the night, as temperatures drop into the fall and winter, but their nightly movements are greatly reduced during the dark of the moon. Avoid full moon periods and stick with hunting the days around a new moon. This hunting tactic will also work in between nights that are hampered with heavy cloud cover. Whitetail will hold tight overnight, so be in the woods when daylight comes, especially when these conditions coincide with really cold temperatures.

This next hunting tip is a no-brainer, but it works. Look for deer foods. As mentioned previously, deer do not stop traveling altogether, but their movements will be modified late into the deer hunting season. Hunt food sources such as cool season forbs, winter food plots, or even deer feeders at non-traditional times. Whitetail deer have to move and eat more as the mercury drops, so find a food source and camp out on between late morning and early afternoon.

A last, but often overlooked, deer hunting tip is to pay attention to the wind speed. Many deer hunters pay attention to wind direction, and rightfully so, but wind speed alone can dictate deer movement. High wind speeds (more than 15 mph) make for difficult hunting conditions and deer do not like to move during these times either. Whitetail deer are nervous creatures already, so high winds and lots of moving limbs do not help. High wind inhibits their ability to detect danger, so deer movement will be greatly suppressed.

Use a weather web site such as AccuWeather.com to get hour-by-hour temperature and wind direction and speed information for your hunting area. It may be the late season, but there is still plenty of deer hunting to be had. Find time to use these deer hunting tips and tactics in combination before the end of the season and the odds will be in your favor. Happy holiday hunting!

Many hunters and landowners believe that predators are a major threat to deer management on their properties. Over most of the white-tailed deer’s range the primary predator of concern is the coyote. It’s true, coyotes do kill and eat deer. The real question is, “How many deer do coyotes kill each year?” That is a hard one to nail down because it depends on many local variables, but it is a question that many hunters and deer managers would like to have answered.

There are other animals that will also kill deer, such as bobcats, bears, feral hogs and mountain lions, but because of a hosts of variables, these species are typically believed to have little impact on local deer populations. But coyotes, well, that is one animal where most deer hunters will say predator control for the benefit for a whitetail deer herd should take place. It’s a rather simplistic view, but in a few cases it could be exactly what the doctor ordered.

Source: “When Marlin Smith placed his Moultrie trail camera on his hunting lease this summer, he was hoping to capture some stunning whitetail deer pictures. Those hopes were realized within the first week of the camera being in the woods, but in a gruesome way that Smith would have never imagined.

Documented in extreme detail was the grisly death scene of a record-class buck at the jaws of some blood-thirsty coyotes.

Smith, a northeast Texas resident, had placed his camera on his 4,800-acre deer lease in nearby Oklahoma. The property he hunts is owned by a large timber company. It is located in some foothills far removed from paved roads and county highways. This is the third year he has been deer hunting the property. But it is the first time he has ever seen brutal whitetail deer pictures like the ones in this series.”

Most deer biologists will tell you that predators do kill deer, but at a rate that only results in minor deer losses. Some will profess that predator control is a critical part of deer herd management, a practice necessary to maintain the balance between deer predators and whitetail. The fact of the matter is that both sides can be right.

In areas with good deer habitat, coyotes alone are unable to control deer numbers. It just will not happen unless other factors are at play. Keep in mind that I specifically said in areas good deer habitat. In these situations, coyotes can provide a level of “control” to slow the growth of a local deer herd, but they will not cause it to decline. Controlled deer harvest will still be a necessary part of the overall management equation.

It’s important to remember that whitetail deer are currently negatively impacting the plant communities in which they live because of overpopulation across the deer’s range. This has happened in the face of growing predator populations. Coyotes take their biggest toll on fawns, but that has not kept whitetail deer from thriving in one of the most coyote-rich areas in the world, South Texas.

The game camera photos of coyotes attacking and killing an Oklahoma deer bring to life most hunter’s biggest nightmare, predators removing a big buck from the deer population that they themselves could have shot. After all, the buck was really nice. What deer hunter would not have loved to put their tag on that animal? I think it’s reasonable to assume that this coyote-killed buck was nothing more that compensatory mortality. It was highly probable that the buck was ill and would have died anyway. The coyotes were just doing what they naturally do—removing the sick and the weak from the deer herd.

The white-tailed deer hunting season is underway and things, at least here in Central Texas, have definitely picked up over the past week. It had been tough hunting with tons of cool season forbs and, believe or not, acorns on the ground! The warmer temperatures did not help the early season deer hunting action either. However, whitetail bucks are now actively seeking out and staying with does. Most of the does observed over the past few days have had anxious bucks right on their heels. The rut is definitely on around here.

Many, but not all, hunters have commented that deer harvest is down in their areas due to an abundance of natural foods. Many places have reported corn just piling up under their feeders. It’s hard to believe that the little bit of rain the region received turned things around so quickly, but that’s very good for the deer. That said, many places involved in deer management programs still have harvest goals they would like to achieve. There is still plenty of hunting season left, so don’t panic yet.

A common question asked by hunters on lands located across the white-tailed deer’s range is, “How many does should we shoot?” As one might suspect, there are many variables that will determine the “right” answer to this question. Check out this real life scenario submitted by Brad from Illinois:

“I have a big concern with our family deer hunting property in southern Illinois. We had nine people hunting our 130 acre property during the first week of the shotgun season. During this time, there were only eight whitetail bucks seen, in which two were harvested. During that same time, we observed at least 20 does. We have only harvested one doe in the last 15 years and I’m having a problem with that.

We have six deer food plots on our property that range from about 1/8 to 1/4 acre in size. We also have a three acre lake and a pond. Our property is surrounded by woods and a majority of my family thinks that the hunters around us take out enough does and we do not have to harvest any. We have already had one blue tongue epidemic run through our area about five years ago. I am curious to know what you think about this.”

First, let me just say that nine hunters on 130 acres is a serious amount of deer hunting pressure. However, the important factor is not so much how many hunters are out there, but rather the number of deer on the place and the number of deer that are ultimately harvested. From a habitat management and a deer health standpoint, it is also important to consider how many deer should be out there. How many animals can this 130 acre property support?

When considering small acreage deer management, hunters must consider the reality that deer will move on and off the property at will. Even a doe will have a home range that is several hundred acres in size. Bucks will use larger areas, particularly during the rut. So how many does should you shoot?

There is no simple answer here, especially when the next question to be asked is, “How many do you have?” Deer surveys can help estimate the whitetail deer density in your area and are most beneficial on properties that are smaller than a couple hundred acres in size when neighboring lands are willing pitch in too. Surveys, as well as data from harvested animals, can help answer many questions for you. What percent of does are having fawns each year? Do the body weights of the deer found on my property indicate a healthy herd?

Based on the observations that Brad mentioned above, the buck to doe ratio in his situation is not all that bad, with one buck for every one and half does (at least before two bucks were shot). Some areas can be badly skewed towards females, with as many as five or six or more does per buck, so not bad for Brad. In his situation though, an important, missing component is the number of fawns observed. Fawn production is a good indicator of overall deer herd health.

It goes without saying, but I will say it anyway, that trying to manage a deer herd on a small piece of land is difficult, and deer management is sometimes impossible, especially if small neighboring properties are not willing to work together towards a common goal. My recommendations in this situation would be to perform deer surveys prior to the deer hunting season, record deer harvest information such as age, antler and body weights and use habitat condition as a gauge for overall herd health. Also, contact the state’s department of natural resources. They likely have a local biologist that can visit your property free of charge and offer some insight into the areas deer numbers based on information they have, as well as how whitetail deer are using the habitat found on your property.

It’s time—the day before the opener of Texas’ General White-tailed Deer Hunting Season! That means the trucks are packed, the trailers are loaded, the guns have been sighted-in (hopefully), the knives are sharpened, the corn used to “chick-chick” the roads is waiting at a gas station to be purchased along the way, and guys and gals and boys and girls all across the great state of Texas will be making tracks today on the way to their deer leases, public hunting lands or personal properties. It’s amazing at just how fast a year goes by now days, but another deer hunting season is upon us.

Like many hunters, I grew up with a father that hunted. He introduced me to the outdoors and taught me how to spot the dove flyways on the property where we ran cows,  how to hunt squirrels, rabbits, deer and how to skin them all, including coons and nutria that we trapped, as well as anything else you could skin. Actually, furbearers brought a good price back then, and I think that really help control a lot of those mid-sized predator populations. Now that I think about it, we did see more quail and even some pheasants around still at that time. Hunting allowed me to experience nature up close, as well as spend time with family and friends.

When I was barely a teenager my dad and some other relatives and his long-time friends found us a deer lease in Mason County. Talk about excited. I recall making the first of many five hour treks out there. It was the Hill Country, after all, and the lease and our camp house were located right on the beautiful Llano River. With what seemed like a whitetail deer under every tree and hungry channel cats waiting in the clear waters of the Llano to bite even a crank bait, I thought we had found heaven. I think we drove up there every weekend in November and December of that year.

I recall one weekend in December in particular. Everyone on the lease had decided the time had come to start filling doe tags. Even then we had some ideas about deer management, but looking back that property was severely over-populated with whitetail. I even remember hearing radio adds while driving through the Hill Country about Llano County being the Deer Capitol of the World, having a deer density of 1 deer per acre. I still think that river lease in Mason County had an equivalent deer density.

One evening was particularly memorable with seven does and a spike buck having been shot between four or five hunters. I remember taking a picture of eight deer hanging from the live oak trees. At that point in my hunting life I had never skinned a deer without some type of assistance and/or instruction and I thought my dad was pretty good at it. He instructed everyone to work on dinner while we worked on the deer. As my dad cut around the first hock, I started the stopwatch feature on my wristwatch, which was pretty high tech for back then, as I held the flashlight. All eight were skinned and gutted within 40 minutes. My dad was strong as an ox back then and popped off deer hides like they were bed sheets.

We had a lot of good times out there. The bucks were not big, especially by today’s standards, but they were all trophies. I still have the horns and can tell you where I was sitting when they were shot, as well as the direction they came from. I would live off of Shasta soda and eat ravioli and chili straight from the can for lunch. We had a lot of good meals, too. I remember the barbecues, the long drives to Mason County at 55 miles per hour and waking up freezing in my sleeping bag because no one woke up to stoke the wood-burning stove. That was 25 years ago. Things sure do change, but the one thing that does not is a hunter’s desire to head out to deer camp for camaraderie, good food and even some deer hunting. I will see my dad this evening, and I’ll have dinner waiting for him.

I think the opening weekend of the General Deer Hunting Season is going to play out fairly well. The weather is not going to be ideal, but it rarely is. Hey, at least no shorts and t-shirts for opening morning. Native food sources are looking good for deer right now because of the recent green-up and most oaks have dropped their acorns. That does not help the hunters though. I’ve heard quite a few instances recently of corn piling up at feeders and game cameras with few deer pictures. The good news is that bucks are on the move with the cooler weather and decreasing day length. Some parts of Texas (middle coast and post oak region) are seeing heavy rutting activity while many are still in the pre-rut stage. But we’ve got all season. Make the most of it. Best of luck to you, your friends and family!