Whitetails give birth to about equal numbers of buck and doe fawns. But any deer hunter who spends opening mornings on stand knows that our herd is dramatically skewed in favor of females. Only one buck in 100 sees its fourth birthday. Alt says he's personally aged 15,000 bucks during his annual visits to butcher shops during the deer seasons, and the oldest buck he's ever examined was 6 years old. He suspects that the repercussions from this unnatural situation are more pervasive than we realize.
Timing is critical here in the north country.
Does bred in December, rather than in November, will drop their fawns later in the summer, and those youngsters will go into the winter with less body weight and be less likely to survive a tough winter. To get a handle on this situation, Alt's crew will be examining embryos from roadkilled does this spring to estimate when the young are being conceived. If a significant number of does are being bred late in the season, Alt says he might push for a doe season prior to buck season. Removing females from the population prior to the breeding season should reduce stress on the bucks, result in a higher percentage of does being bred and a lower number of late births. Bucks 2 to 4 years old that carry those heart-stopping racks that most of us have no hope of seeing under the current management regime.