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Can someone explain to me?


Buck_shooter
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Please no arguing or debating, just looking for facts. I've been seeing a lot of posts saying that some deer management strategies are intended to increase the age of the deer herd, thereby increasing the health of the herd. I don't really understand that. It seems to me that regardless of age, an area can only support so many deer. So how exactly does age structure figure into over all herd health?

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It has to do with the rut. Basically, with a better age structure, combined with a buck to doe ratio that is close to 1:1, 1:2, 1:3 the main rut becomes shorter, and the smaller, later ruts become less frequent. In turn, fawning times are not as spread out in the spring, and deer are at a better age/size for dealing with a harsh winter, etc.

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Any deer herd with a doe to buck ratio of more than 6 does per buck is the start of a declining herd... After that, does are bred past the December rut if at all, allowing higher #'s of fawns to be eaten by predators because they are dropped over a longer period of time. They are born 1 to 1 and bucks have a natural higher mortality rate... (Run down from the rut for example) so the closer we are to that 1:1 the better the herd will be... 

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