Doe harvest

[AlabamaSwamper]

BSK or BGG,

Taking disease die off out of consideration here, can hunters really put much of a dent in a local doe population?

I mean, I know clubs or farms that shoot every doe they see or close to it and every year they kill every doe they see. They never seem to really knock them back to awful much.

I know of a club in Georgia (just across the Bama line off HWY 278 near Cedartown) that kills around 40 does on average a year off 1500 acres. In the last 4 years they've shot right at 200 does and around 25 bucks (4pts on one side). Yet, they seem to do little damage to the population.

This club is like a typical middle Tennessee timber company land club. Pine trees and honeysuckle.

I'm just thinking it can't be done, not legally anyway.

Ok, I'm bored and needed to type something.

 

[BSK]

What affect doe harvests have depends on several factors: 1) the deer density; 2) fawn recruitment; 3) the habitat; and most importantly 4) THE DOE HARVEST POLICIES OF YOUR NEIGHBORS. That last one is critical. If your neighbors are pounding does, yes you can have an impact on the doe population. If your neighbors are not shooting many does, and you have "attractive" habitat, your place can become a "doe sink" and draw in the excess does from the neighbors land. This can produce a situation where you could literally shoot every doe on a property in a given year, yet the property will completely refilled with the neighbors' does by the next year.

 

[baller_9]

What affect doe harvests have depends on several factors: 1) the deer density; 2) fawn recruitment; 3) the habitat; and most importantly 4) THE DOE HARVEST POLICIES OF YOUR NEIGHBORS. That last one is critical. If your neighbors are pounding does, yes you can have an impact on the doe population. If your neighbors are not shooting many does, and you have "attractive" habitat, your place can become a "doe sink" and draw in the excess does from the neighbors land. This can produce a situation where you could literally shoot every doe on a property in a given year, yet the property will completely refilled with the neighbors' does by the next year.

Never thought about it like that but it sure makes a lot of sense. We use to be able to put in food plots on our farm and some days you might see 15+ does in a day. Were not able to put in our plots like we use to and sometimes see more bucks then does now.

 

[BSK]

baller_9,

Many years ago a study was done (I believe in New York state) to test how "mobile" deer are. The researchers attempted to remove all deer from a given area and then track how long it took for that area to fill back up with deer. Turns out it took nearly a decade. This led to the belief that doe groups are not very mobile and that restocking efforts may be hampered by this lack of mobility (deer staying basically where they were restocked instead of spreading out). However, that study was conducted in very low-productivity habitat with a low deer density that also experienced very low fawn production/survival.

Considering more recent real-world experiences weren't matching that data, a few years ago a similar research project was conducted in a different situation. Researchers attempted to remove all deer within a square mile area in a single year. However, in this project, the habitat was much more productive, the deer density was much higher, and fawn production was high. Under these conditions, the researchers produced a completely different result. Even though they removed the vast majority of deer from that square mile in one year (no deer could be seen with spotlights or captured on trail-cameras within that square mile area), the area had completely refilled with deer by the following year. Interestingly, they had radio and GPS-collars on numerous deer in the general area, so they could assess which deer shifted into this open gap in deer density and from how far they came.

The point is, with productive habitat and deer densities common to today's world, deer can be highly mobile. They WILL shift their ranges to utilize open habitat niches not being used by other deer. So if you have productive habitat, lowering the local deer density through doe harvests may not last long, especially if you lower the density below what is currently on surrounding properties. Deer from these now higher density surrounding areas may find your lower density habitat niche and shift into it, basically bringing the density back up to a more level playing field with the neighboring properties. This can give the impression that hunters can shoot does unrelentingly without ever causing a reduction in population. And this is true, IF does are not being harvested on surrounding properties at the same rate as they are on the target property.

 

[Radar]

I hunt a Doe sink as BSK described . Does will take over the best habitat if they are not getting harvested in the general area .

 

[BSK]

I hunt a Doe sink as BSK described . Does will take over the best habitat if they are not getting harvested in the general area .

Because of our improved habitat over surrounding areas, my property is usually a doe sink. However, in the last two years we appear to be seeing the affects of the big die-off from EHD. Although we experienced little die-off on our property, surrounding areas did see considerable die-off. The result is, we just aren't seeing this doe sink play out because there aren't as many deer in neighboring areas to shift into our place.