The vast majority of fawn mortality from all causes occurs within a fawn's first two weeks of life. That mortality can be from any number of causes, including predation, disease, low birth weight, malnutrition, abandonment, and accidents (car-deer collisions, falls, etc.). However, a slow mortality continues to exist from that point until the fawn is "recruited" into the adult population on their first birthday. Wildlife Managers watch the "fawn recruitment rate" very closely, as it tell him/her how many adult deer can be harvested during hunting season without reducing the total deer population (number of deer harvested doesn't exceed the number of fawns that will be recruited into the adult population the following spring).
In the past, the fawn recruitment rate was determined using hunter observations of adult doe numbers versus fawn numbers. But with the advent of the photo census technique, better fawn recruitment numbers can be generated from trail-camera data from open feeding areas like agricultural fields and food plots, during September and October. During these two months, most fawns are traveling with their mothers full time and are still small enough to easily differentiate from adult does.
