Dave, I found the figures on the related fawn study interesting too…
The researchers tracked the fawns daily through summer. The eight-week survival average is 58% for fawns in the northern study area and 76% in the eastern farmland.
Of the fawns that died in summer in the northern study area, 79% were taken by predators. Black bears led the way, killing nine fawns, followed by coyote (six) and bobcat (six). Unknown predators accounted for 11 fawns.
In the eastern farmland study area, the leading cause of fawn mortality was starvation and other natural causes (50%), followed by predators (36%). Of the deaths linked to predators, coyotes killed 8 fawns, followed by bear (one), bobcat (one) and domestic dog (one). Unknown predators accounted for four fawn deaths.
I’m impressed by the black bears and bobcats, those are two animals I did not have in my head as deer slayers, but we do tend to think about animals as mature adults, not vulnerable fawns (at least I do).
Am I right in remembering your mate Valerius Geist writing that the single best change that could be made to the elk hunting paradigm (in terms of herd health) would be to shift the human focus from mature males to fawns as that historic hunter of elk fawns, the wolf, no longer shares much of the elk range? As I understood it that lack of fawn mortality combined with the unprecedented pressure on mature males has created an ecological imbalance?
All the same fawn mortality (and joeys here) strikes me as an underappreciated facet of herd biology.
Thanks for the link 😉
Jim
