• Posts
    • Bowhunting Articles
    • Bowhunting News
    • Bowhunting Gear
  • Interviews
    • Straight Shot Blog
  • Videos
  • Deer Pictures By Robert Hoague
  • Cooking Wild Game
    • Cooking With SusieQ
  • Wild Hogs
  • Bowfishing
  • Events
  • Contact
Tuesday, February 7, 2023
Bowhunting.Net
  • Login
  • Register
  • Bowhunting Articles
  • Interviews
    • Straight Shot Blog
  • Bowhunting Videos
  • Deer
  • Wild Turkey
  • Scouting
  • Bear
  • Cooking Wild Game
    • Cooking With SusieQ
    • Wild Game Cooking
No Result
View All Result
  • Bowhunting Articles
  • Interviews
    • Straight Shot Blog
  • Bowhunting Videos
  • Deer
  • Wild Turkey
  • Scouting
  • Bear
  • Cooking Wild Game
    • Cooking With SusieQ
    • Wild Game Cooking
No Result
View All Result
Bowhunting.Net
No Result
View All Result
Home Bowhunting Posts

Fawn Helpers

Wade Nolan by Wade Nolan
October 1, 2013
in Bowhunting Posts
0 0
A A
1

Sponsored by: Atsko Products

 

By: bowhunting biologist Wade Nolan

Much research has gone into defining fawn cover and how you can create it. If you’re a landowner and you’d like to improve whitetail fawn survival you may want to read on. Fawns naturally want to hide when bedded. Just last week I watched a newborn fawn walk up to a log on the edge of a neighbor’s yard and drop down in the shade, just alongside the log. He chose the cool shadowy side and once he was down, he was invisible. Fawns come with this hiding propensity already in the program.

Last week I was hunting hogs in the Everglades and I spotted a couple of fawns hiding in heavy cover. Actually, I almost tramped on one newborn fawn and it fled about 50 yards and dropped. I saw where it went but after walking over there and standing where I last saw it I was dismayed at my inability to locate it. It had to be right here somewhere, I thought. I stood there and looked at every inch of underbrush in an area the size of my living room. After five full minutes, the tiny fawn twitched his ear at a biting fly and I had him. He was only ten feet away and was as camouflaged as a diamond-backed rattler in dry leaves.

Do you see him?
How about now?
Now it’s easy!

An interesting fawn study was recently conducted by researchers on two ranches in South Texas. The fawns were captured with the aid of vaginal implant transmitters that are expelled when a doe gives birth. The captured fawns were fitted with expandable mortality collars and monitored daily. The team captured and monitored 46 fawns across two summers. They kept track of hiding cover and the distance and direction the fawn bedded from shrubs. Here is what they found.

This field on my farm offers a large open grassy area. Within 50 yards of the hardwoods, the field is dotted with stands of autumn olive bushes. Fawn security is provided when the habitat is checker-boarded with cover and grasses.
Dense native grasses offer great hiding cover for fawns.

Dense hiding cover was utilized 81% of the time for bed sites. Interestingly the fawns stayed about 4.5 feet from a shrub. The other interesting finding is that the fawns understand sun angles or at least respond to them. In nearly every case, the fawn bedded to the SE of the shadow-casting shrub. The temperatures were consistently less there than on the sunny side. Think about the selection of southeast as a bedding direction. In Texas in June, the sun rises in the east and warms the air, but by late morning, the shrub is casting a shadow to the SE as the sun tracts slightly to the north as it moves west. The fawn is largely in the shadows when the temperature rises. This minimizes both visibility and exposure to heat.

Fawns so spend time with mom but probably less than you think. Survival means they tank up and then hide for most of the day.

So what can you do to improve fawning cover on your property? It is known that mama does locate fawns in tall spring grass. There are many native grasses you can plant that will help add this dimension to your woods and field edges. Another important consideration is that you should offer many individual patches of thick standing grass so does can scatter their fawns across a large area and not be forced to concentrate on one area. Another strategy is to encourage and even plant autumn olive or other brushy shrubs to dot the landscape.

Remember, fawns also enjoy some degree of protection from predation if they have tall grass in which to hide. When you only corn feed the bucks in your woods… you are taking care of you; take care of the fawns too. It will pay dividends in your deer herd.

This bit of whitetail research is brought to you by the science team at ATSKO. The only thing a whitetail can’t smell is nothing. Atsko can take you there.

Biologist Wade Nolan has spoken about whitetails in over 300 cities. Book him at www.wadenolan.com

For more from Atsko Scent Control

For more from Wade Nolan: Click Here

Tags: Atsko scent controlwade nolanWhitetail Fawn protection
Previous Post

Limbsaver® Broadband Dampeners Fit Every Bow

Next Post

McKinney Elected AHOF President

Next Post
Rick McKinney

McKinney Elected AHOF President

Results Of Scouting Deer

NEW 15' WARRIOR LADDER STAND FROM AMERISTEP®

Trailing a deer can lead the hunter into sacred ground. be sure to remain scent free.

Human Scent Leaves a Lasting Impression

Comments 1

  1. Rick Philippi says:
    9 years ago

    thanks for a very informative article Wade. Very interesting.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • Video Your Crossbow Hunts
  • Best Spring Black Bear Hunt in the USA
  • NEW At The 2023 ATA Archery Trade Show
  • Jeff Sturgis: How To Make A Waterhole
  • Sydnie Wells 2023: The Search For Bullwinkle
  • Gladiator Meets Tim Wells
  • Bowhunting Articles
  • Interviews
  • Bowhunting Videos
  • Deer
  • Wild Turkey
  • Scouting
  • Bear
  • Cooking Wild Game

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Bowhunting Articles
  • Bowhunting Videos
  • Deer
  • Bowhunting Gear
  • Western Bowhunting
    • Elk
  • Wild Turkey
  • Cooking Wild Game
  • Wild Turkey Bowhunters Blog
  • Straight Shot Blog
  • Register
  • Activate
  • The Original Bowhunting Website & Blog. Online Since 1996.
  • Robert Hoague Field Notes, Photos & Blog

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
-
00:00
00:00

Queue

Update Required Flash plugin
-
00:00
00:00