More fawns survive this year, main preditor humans

San Francisco Chronicle/SF Gate/Tom Stienstra, 9/21/15.  "Mild winter gives deer herds a bounce."

Beware of mountain lions and humans

Okay now, never again

....  "A mild winter a year ago followed by spring rains helped give deer herds their first population bounce in years.  As deer seasons open this week across much of Northern California and the Sierra Nevada, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife estimated the state’s deer population increased in the past year from 443,289 to 512,000. The Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies also reported a big increase, and estimated roughly 450,000 to 550,000.

....  In harsh winters, if fawns and yearlings enter the season with low nutrition, they can lack the body fat to survive long periods with little food available. In the spring and early summer, pregnant does stressed by a lack of nutrition can have poor fawn survival rates. When that occurs, mountain lion predation then cuts into the deer that survived the harsh winter, and the overall population goes down.

The opposite occurred this past year. With warm temperatures and a high snowline, often about 8,000 feet, more mountain areas received rain, not snow. The central Sierra received 57 inches of rain last winter at Nyack/Blue Canyon, for instance, instead of 300 inches of snow."  Read more.

Note deer photographs.  Doe and her fawn from Buck Manager/Deer Hunting and Management.  Fawn and fox Wild life hotline.

Posted by Kathy Meeh