Will a doe run her fawns off and when ?

Hello! My wife & I visited with you at the Hunters Extravaganza in FortWorth on Friday night. We live about 35 miles NW of Fort Worth. We have feeders and an oat food plot which is located in between a creek and a ravine that is spring feed. My question is…With our resident does..we are not seeing last years or befores offspring…Do the does run off all the offspring off of the place? What happens to the doe and buck fawns that we aren’t seeing? Also…we see does year round but no bucks until the rut Are they there and we don’t see them or are they far away?Thank you so much for your help!

Dr. Kroll:

Does tend to run their fawns away briefly at two times of the year: breeding and fawning. However, more often than not, it is the buck fawns that do not come back. So, the fact you are not seeing fawns either is due to poor survival or you may not be recognizing the fawns when they are between six and eighteen months of age. As to the does on your land, there is such a thing as doe habitats. Buck generally prefer much poorer habitats than does so the latter have the best places to raise the buck’s offspring. Most hunters tend to haunt doe, rather than buck habitat.