Buck Manager | Buck Manager

Predators and Deer Management: Bobcat Kills Fawn

Predator control can be an integral part of a white-tailed deer management. Regulating predators should be a year-round activity on properties that are serious about the task, but it’s usually right about the time fawns start hitting the ground that hunters think about doing it. Limiting predators can work well when used hand-in-hand with other practices such as habitat management and supplemental feeding. Though there are many things looking to chow down on a deer, the “whitetail killer” that gets most of the attention is the cunning coyote.

They are smart. They do get a lot of attention from hunters, and for good reason. The coyote is the most abundant predator on the landscape with the ability to take whitetail, especially when they pack hunt. Case in point: Recall the article where a group of coyotes kill a whitetail buck on game camera? But as much attention as song dogs get, they aren’t the only game in town. Bobcats can also do a number on deer, especially when it comes to fawns.

Bobcat Kills Deer Fawn on Game Camera

Bobcat Goes for the Kill

The game camera photo below shows a whitetail fawn being attacked by a bobcat while near a deer feeder. The photo was taken in Central Texas within the last month. And yes, the date and time on the camera are wrong because apparently the hunter did not set them.

That’s not uncommon — and neither are fawns in the bobcat diet when recently-born whitetail fawns are available. Research conducted in Texas found that the bobcat diet contains more deer during the month of June than any other time of the year. Coincidence? No.

It is, however, believed that bobcats have a more limited impact on adult deer than coyotes despite the fact that bobcat attacks on adult deer have also been photo-documented. I would imagine that the majority of adult deer killed by bobcats are already either sick or injured. I also suspect there are individual cats that operate as exceptions to this rule.

It’s unlikely that predator control as a component of a deer management program would have a “bobcat-only” control aspect, but rather their numbers would be reduced through general predator control tactics that target coyotes, bobcats and feral hogs. Bobcats, though shy like other felid species, are susceptible to snares, #3 leg-hold traps, and calling and shooting, with the latter being the most targeted method. Like anything, it takes experience with predator control to become proficient at it.

Predator Control and Deer Management

Should intensive predator control be a part of your deer management program? Maybe. Maybe not. It all depends on the characteristics of the deer herd in question as well as the potential for the habitat found on the property to provide the protection that deer need. Quality habitat will alleviate a lot of predator issues. On the other hand, poor deer habitat will likely compound them. An absence of grass and tall forbs makes fawns really easy to find. A lack of screening cover (trees, shrubs, tall grass) makes every deer easy to find.

Controlling predators is a management tool that must be evaluated on a property by property basis. Predators are a part of the natural system, but the impact they have on a specific property may not fit into your deer management plan. High fenced properties, specifically smaller ones, should consider predator management for the sake of the deer herd. I’ve seen several situations where coyotes in particular have drastically reduced deer populations.

Before declaring all-out-war on predator populations it is important to consider a few things. Are predators such as coyotes, bobcats or even feral hogs limiting the deer population on the property you hunt or manage? If predators are controlled, can the property support more deer without a decline in habitat quality? Are you prepared for more time spent deer hunting, increased harvest and the removal of surplus deer, and will those animals be used?

Determining Carrying Capacity for Deer Management

Deer Management Question

Question: “Hi, I’m not into deer hunting but I need to learn something about whitetail deer management. It involves the concept of carrying capacity. I live on an island in Puget Sound, human population 20, deer population 15 to 30 depending on who you talk to. The environment is lush and the deer lack nothing. They don’t even have ticks, apparently.

There are more bucks than does, and this year there were at least 3 fawns that I know of. I recently read that whitetail deer could double in population in just two years. The island is only about 200 acres total. So how does one calculate the carrying capacity of the island? At what point do the deer need to be thinned to keep everything healthy? Thanks.”

Whitetail Management: Deer Carrying Capacity

Response: First, good call in gathering information on deer management for your island. This is a good idea for anyone intending to manage deer on a property. Fortunately, it t does not sound like you have a deer overpopulation dilemma on your hands just yet. While that is good news, I will offer some pointers on managing deer and habitat in any area. Deer, like most animals, are self-limiting. However, it’s best to avoid a situation that ends in population collapse.

When deer numbers get high and food availability gets low, individual deer start to lose body mass. This leads to weak deer that ultimately die. When a bunch of individual animals die the population crashes. Wildlife management at its very essence is designed to harvest and use those excess animals . Sound management occurs well before malnutrition brings down an entire population.

White-tailed deer are widely adaptable creatures and do well in a variety of habitat types. They are classified as browsers, meaning they eat primarily plants other than grass. Grass, by the way, generally only comprises about 7 to 10 percent of the whitetail diet. Whitetail prefer certain forbs (weeds), which are extremely high in protein. However, the bulk of their diet tends to be leaves, stems and twigs of trees, shrubs and vines. These perennial, woody plants are stable food sources and often available throughout much of the year.

Deer Management & Carrying Capacity of a Property

What is the right number of deer for a property? This question gets asked a lot by landowners, hunters and biologists managing whitetail on low-fenced properties, on high-fenced properties and apparently even by those managing deer on islands. If you think about it, an island is similar to a high-fenced ranch in that deer movement is limited. Deer will always come a go in both situations. After all, a taller-than-normal fence is not deer proof. Water does not stop deer either. However, high fences and large expanses of water do limit deer movement.

The carrying capacity of a property for whitetail deer varies. It varies throughout the year. It varies from year to year. Most don’t think about this, but non-managed wildlife populations are naturally highly variable. Population sizes boom, then they bust. Deer management aims for a type of population management that levels out fluctuations. This will help keep deer healthy from year to year. It is only through the removal of animals prior to (or even during) stress periods that the remaining deer population survives and thrives.

Population Size & Food Availability

The whitetail deer carrying capacity of a property is based on the highest number of animals a property can support when natural foods are at their lowest. In most areas, carrying capacity is based on food availability during the winter. This is a big reason why we head out deer hunting in the fall. It’s better to harvest the equivalent of the year’s production and to ensure the welfare of the remaining deer herd.

The only sure-fire way to identify that a deer herd has arrived at carrying capacity is when habitat degradation begins. When too many deer are on the landscape the foliage on most woody plants will begin to disappear. This vanishing forage happens from ground level up to about 5 feet in height. As more and more foliage is consumed an obvious “browse line” will become evident, indicating severe overpopulation. You don’t ever want to end up in this situation.

My recommendation to anyone attempting to manage a deer herd is to keep a close eye on native plants. First, make sure to contact a local biologist to get a list of the native deer plants deer consume in the area. A list of this sort will usually rank the plants in order (or classification) of preference by deer. If the least preferred deer foods begin to be readily consumed, then it’s time to reduce the herd.

Managing a Population Using Deer Surveys

Identifying heavy use of less palatable plants by whitetail will tell you that there are too many deer. However, this will not tell you how many deer you have on a property. The only way to estimate the population is to conduct deer surveys. On a small high-fenced ranch or an island of 200 acres, the go-to method would be to conduct motion-triggered camera surveys. To get improve the survey, conduct camera surveys in conjunction with collecting incidental, daylight observations. These two deer survey methods, especially when combined, will give a very precise estimate of deer population. By the way, always perform surveys in late summer or early fall to capture annual reproduction.

Once you have an estimated deer population, then you can start to put the pieces of the puzzle together. This information will provide a picture of what is actually happening in the field. For example, let’s say in Year 1 the deer population is estimated at 15 animals and all browse plants look great. During Year 2 the deer population is estimated to be 25 deer and things are still looking good.

However, in Year 3 there are an estimated 40 animals and plants that are moderately preferred by deer are showing heavy use. Furthermore, the plants that deer do not like are starting to be eaten too. The carrying capacity of the plant community has been exceeded. In this example, the right number is more than 25 deer but less than 40.

Sound Deer Management & Carrying Capacity

Good management of both land and wildlife takes correlating what is happening to the habitat with what is going on with the population. Only then can a manager begin to determine where deer carrying capacity lands. In the above example it would probably be a good idea to manage for a deer population in the neighborhood of 30 animals. However, continued observation on an annual basis would allow the manager to tweak carrying capacity. Annual harvest recommendations would be based on data to maintain a healthy deer herd.

Once a target deer population size is established for a property then the biggest factors that influence herd management (harvest versus no harvest) are annual recruitment (fawn survival) and habitat condition. So as you see, carrying capacity is a balancing act between deer numbers and food availability. Plant and deer surveys can provide you with critical information for managing population size.

Deer Hunting in Texas: Public Lands

The overwhelming majority of deer hunting and management that happens in Texas takes place on private lands. Although ranches and farms across the state produce the bulk of deer year-in and year-out, there is another option out there when it comes to deer hunting in Texas: draw hunts on public land. Sure, 97 percent of Texas is privately owned, but much of the other 3 percent offers some really good hunting too. This is especially true of the state owned properties that are operated by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) as wildlife management areas. A wildlife management area (WMA) serves as a research and demonstration site for landowners and hunters that manage property in the same ecoregion of Texas.

Each of the 50 or so WMAs implement a variety of habitat management practices for both game and non-game species to show private landowners what they too can do on their own properties. The product of good habitat management is healthy wildlife populations and economical hunting opportunities for folks looking to bag white-tailed deer, turkey, dove and other species, including alligator. Hunters that enter the annual public draw hunts have a shot at hunting these properties. Of course, public hunting in Texas is not just limited to WMAs.

Other public lands found in the draw hunt lottery, which is administered by TPWD, includes state parks, state natural areas, state forest land, US Forest Service lands and property owned by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The application book for the 2013-14 hunting season was mailed out last week and is available online right now. My family, friends and I have entered these draw hunts for years even though we all have private lands or leases that we hunt. We enjoy the opportunity to meet up, camp and hunt different areas from time to time. And it’s real, open field deer hunting. Every hunt that we’ve gone on in the past 25 years has been great, memorable and we’ve almost always left with more in the coolers than we brought.

Texas Public Draw Hunt Applications – Do Not Mess Up!

TPWD: “A correctly completed application card must be received at the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department’s Austin Headquarters by 5:00 p.m. on the deadline day for the concerned hunt category in order to be entered in the drawing. Application deadlines may be found immediately below each Hunt Category title.

Only one application per person in a hunt category (example, Gun Deer Either Sex) will be allowed. In the event two or more applications are received for an individual within the same hunt category, all applicants on those application forms will be disqualified. It does not matter where your name appears on an application form, that is your application for that hunt category. Even if you apply for another area or on another persons application card for the SAME HUNT CATEGORY, EVERYONE on those cards WILL BE DISQUALIFIED.”

The term “public hunting” means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. All hunters have heard about the pitfalls of hunting public lands, but TPWD’s special draw hunts really offer a quality, controlled hunting experience for folks looking for a place to hunt. The book containing hunt dates and applications can be found online at Applications for Drawings on Public Hunting Lands. This booklet contains all of the program rules and regulations, hunt categories and schedules, procedures for applying, hunt area descriptions and application cards. TPWD will even mail you a printed copy if you request one by calling 1-800-792-1112.

Texas Deer Hunting: Holding Steady?

A Look at Deer Hunting in Texas

It’s never too early to start talking about the upcoming white-tailed deer hunting season in Texas, especially now that we are halfway through the annual antler growth cycle. All of that velvety growth is starting to take shape, giving hunters a glimpse what to expect even though there are still a couple of months left before “hard-horned” bucks start filling trail camera photos. I love this time of year! The last few months leading up to deer season are almost as much fun as hunting season itself. Almost.

Texas is well known as one of the best places for hunting deer. After all, the state is home to the largest whitetail population in the US with an estimated 4 million animals. That’s a whole lot of hooves on the ground, but really a testament to the good deer management that is taking place on properties all across the state.

Number of Hunters, Deer Harvested

According to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), the 2012-13 deer hunting season saw over 636,000 deer hunters head into the field for about 5.6 million days of hunting. All that time in the stand produced an approximated harvest of just over 546,000 whitetail deer.

That is a lot of deer, but still less than 15 percent of Texas’ total whitetail population.

Source: “The big game harvest survey in its current format was first done after the 1972-73 hunting season. Immediately following the conclusion of the deer hunting season, a random sample of approximately 2.5% of all licensed hunters was selected and a big game harvest survey questionnaire was mailed to the selected hunters. After approximately 4 weeks, non-respondents were mailed a second questionnaire….

The survey asked if the recipient hunted the targeted species, county/counties hunted in, number of days spent hunting in each county, and sex and date of harvest of each individual harvested.”

Deer Harvest Highest in Edwards Plateau

TPWD estimates annual deer harvest in each of the 10 ecoregions that comprise the state. Once again, the top whitetail producer last season was the Edward’s Plateau, affectionately know as the Texas Hill Country by those that hunt there. Hunters decreased the deer herd found in the Edward’s Plateau by an estimated 177,000 whitetail last season. The second and third place finishers were South Texas with almost 103,000 deer harvested and the Post Oak region with just over 97,000 deer harvested, although the Pineywoods was not far behind.

The annual whitetail deer harvest for the 2012-13 season estimated well over a half-million deer, but the reported number is one of the lower statewide harvests in the last 13 years. In fact, the downward trend in total harvest is quite obvious over the past few years. This decline no doubt stems from the drought that has plagued all of Texas the last few years. Habitat conditions have decreased, herd recruitment has suffered and there have been fewer deer on the landscape in recent seasons.

From a deer management standpoint, fewer hooves on the ground is a good thing when environmental conditions are bad. This helps the standing population survive, allowing them to repopulate when habitat conditions improve. Let’s just hope that turn comes sooner rather than later. Deer harvest is about more than just shooting inferior bucks. Sometimes management means reducing deer herds to maintain the condition of wildlife habitat.

Deer Population Control: Management Options

Question: “I recently moved into an older, established gated golf community just outside of Trinity, Texas. There are so many deer here and they take over the yards, gardens and golf course. You can not have a garden unless you install and electric fence. There are a few people who do feed them and have received notices to stop feeding the deer. This spring you can see fawns all over the place with their mothers.

We had a POA meeting last night and was told there is nothing we can do about the deer overpopulation. I refuse to believe that. My sister was diagnosed with Lyme’s Disease a year ago and it is in the advanced stages. Too many deer are a danger in many ways. They have taken over this community and I am desperate to find help and deer management option. Please, if you can provide information I would greatly appreciate it. I contacted the Parks and Wildlife today and left a message for someone to call. Thank you.”

White-tailed Deer Management

Response: Most of the people typically interested in white-tailed deer management are hunters and farm and ranch owners with rural acreage. Their goals are improve habitat and manage deer populations, but typically to enhance body condition, antler quality and improve deer hunting. However, landowners (homeowners) in suburban areas where whitetail populations become overabundant also come to the realization that deer population management is also important on small acreage, very small acreage.

I’m talking in terms of lots — as in residential lots ranging from 1/4 acre up to a couple of acres. All those tiny lots add up to a substantial amount of acreage, often situated adjacent to greenbelts and other undeveloped areas that can potentially serve as deer habitat. It’s impractical to manage a deer population on an area the size of a lot, but property owner associations (POAs) and neighborhoods can work as management cooperatives to put deer in the crosshairs, so to speak. When it comes to urban deer management, there is something you can do.

Deer Population Control and Management in Urban Areas

Controlling a Deer Population

First off, it’s a good idea to contact Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), so you are headed in the right direction. They have wildlife biologist that can help explain the deer control methods that will work best in a given area. They will also need to be involved if your POA decides to get involved with active control practices, which most likely will require a permit of some sort.

The options available to manage a suburban deer population are limited, but one of the methods will work for your area if you and your neighbors are ready to do something. But like most things in life, managing deer is never easy, especially when in comes to suburban areas.

Have you ever noticed that the more people you get involved in making a decision the more difficult that decisions becomes? Well, there have been some high profile deer control examples that have made the news from Austin and San Antonio in recent years. It’s rare that a sizeable group of people agree on anything, but it seems that neighbors can get quite argumentative with one another when it comes to cute, Bambi-like, vegetation-eating deer.

Management of a deer population takes into account the good of the population, but debate over the issue of deer population control in residential areas heats up when the neighbors treat the deer as individuals. As you will find out, some do. Many of your neighbors likely have names for the various deer that frequent their yards. From what I know about suburban deer issues, determining how to proceed is much easier than having everyone agree on whether to proceed.

Deer Management within Suburban Areas

Source: “When addressing suburban deer problems, the advantages and disadvantages of all available deer management techniques must be evaluated. Differing circumstances among suburban communities will result in varied approaches to solving the problem. Furthermore, it is likely that a combination of management techniques will be necessary to achieve desired results. Involved stakeholders should be made aware that suburban deer management objectives are achievable, but they are often difficult and costly. Deer control measures require community input, as well as considerable long-term planning and commitment. The costs of suburban deer management should always be compared to potential benefits such as reduced deer/vehicle accidents, improved human safety, and decreased landscape/garden damage.

It is important for communities to develop measurable long-term goals and objectives as part of a comprehensive deer management plan before implementing deer control measures. Objectives based on deer abundance could be evaluated with standard deer survey techniques such as survey transects or time/area counts. Indicators such as frequency of deer/vehicle collisions, number of reported deer complaints, or predetermined reductions in landscape damage, could be used to measure cultural objectives. Stakeholders should understand that the total elimination of the problem (or the deer herd) is neither practical nor achievable in most cases. Rather, the goal should be related to the reduction of deer-human conflicts to an acceptable level.

Managing an overabundant deer population should be accomplished in two phases. First, the Initial reduction phase is implemented to remove large numbers of deer from an overabundant herd during a short period of time to achieve desired deer densities. Deer managers have learned that deer herd reduction measures that remove less than 50% of the estimated population typically do not provide significant relief from density-related problems. After completion of the initial phase, a maintenance phase includes long-term efforts to maintain deer densities at target levels. Many protected areas include deer-proof fencing projects in their long-term maintenance program in order to restrict the ingress of additional deer and gain more control over their deer herd. Most importantly, deer managers should have long-term deer management plans in place before initiating deer herd reduction operations.

Deer management costs can be highly variable depending on available labor, deer densities, management objectives, and other site-specific factors. Additionally, it has been shown that the cost of removing, treating, or otherwise managing deer increases as deer management programs progress. As deer numbers decrease, it takes increased effort and resources to affect the remaining population. The high costs associated with diminishing returns may prevent achieving population goals with some techniques.

Of course, deer managers must comply with applicable state wildlife regulations, city ordinances, and community policies while conducting deer control measures. Lethal control measures commonly require the approval of city government and special authorization from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.”

The control of a deer population within an organized subdivision will be limited to regulated hunting, sharpshooting, trap and remove, trap and kill, and fencing for improved deer management and population control within the POA. All of these techniques can work, but it will be up to your POA to decide which one/s will work best. Costs will vary by management practice and will likely be a deciding factor. Other control ideas that have been suggested in the past, such as “birth control” for does and predator reintroduction, have either not been effective or well received within communities. It is typically recommended that all deer feeding stop immediately.