Winter Drainage February can be a difficult month for Pennsylvania whitetails, especially the young deer. Winter, in general, is a bottleneck for deer in the sense that forage is at its lowest yearly level. Couple this with snow cover, ice and cold temperatures and it is not difficult to understand why winter is a stressful period for deer in Pennsylvania. The stresses caused by malnutrition can cause fatal complications for otherwise minor illnesses.
Winter is very stressful on young animals for several reasons.
First, their body mass to surface area ratio is much lower than the larger yearling and adult deer. This means their body's capability to retain heat is lower. Second, fawns have little time to build up body reserves in preparation for winter because much of their energy is being used for body growth. Third, they are lowest in the hierarchy of the biological social system of the deer. They are dominated by other older deer, and cannot reach as high for browse as the larger deer.