First Proof of This I've Seen...

A local permitted deer rehabber sent me this today. A doe that he raised/bottle-fed had a fawn today (September 22nd). This doe is 1.5 years old, so she was a yearling last fall.

The enclosure is designed so the deer can jump in and out as they get old enough to do so. 100% wild bucks also have been observed jumping in there over the years.

With a whitetail's 200 day gestation...this would be a late Feb/early March breeding for a late September birthing.

I've read and was taught in college that this happens but this is a first proof for me.

I'm gonna have to look more closely at these single doe deer before I arrow one now...

Very interesting Swampwolf! So I guess she wouldn’t have made the weight requirement to go into her first cycle at a normal time? And then maybe didn’t get bred the first time around on top of that? Is yalls rut generally in October?

We have had a couple instances of this in my area this year as well. Fawns sighted within the last couple weeks just having been born. What is happening to cause this?

Southwest Alabama regularly still has spotted fawns in November.

6 month old fawns will sometimes reach a very healthy body wt and physical condition that triggers them coming into heat in late winter.

Another factor that may contribute is a high doe population and a low buck population...

And/or, as Warrior stated: a historically later breeding cycle in certain regions of the country.

Yes..she must have reached a very good physical condition in late, late winter and came into heat.

Approx 90% or more of doe deer here are bred from mid October to Halloween.

In the early 2000's, we (DNR staff) collected the reproductive tracts from 70 does harvested near the Ga-Fl line in early December. 5% were bred in late Sept. 90% were bred in late October, 5% were not yet visibly bred when they were killed in December.

Heard of a doe being shot in mid December that was near full term

Shooter never considered she was heavy bred and not just fat

I’d think with our climate they could breed all year. I’ve spotted fawns in December. Got video of a nice antlered buck and one that had shed, hard on a doe in early April. That antlered buck wanted to fight but that shed buck wanted no part of it without head gear.

I’m confused on the terminology. I thought 1st year deer we’re fawns, the next year they’re yearlings or 1.5yr old deer. Are you calling them fawns just until they lose their spots then call them yearlings during that first year?

Sorta has me to thinking about all those does I've seen and killed over the years that didn't have a yearling with them but they had milk in their udders....in Sept, Oct, Nov, and Dec.

With a newborn fawn now, it will be several weeks before the doe will let the fawn follow her to food sources.....hmmm.

Yes....just the way I've always referred to them.

Fawns = spots.

Yearling = after spots fade but still with doe for rest of year.

I refer to 1.5 year old bucks as yearling bucks.

Not written in stone.....just the way I've always referred to em.

A doe will go into heat over and over until she's bred. I think they usually are done about May-June or so.

Technically she would ( by most biologists aging ) have been a fawn when bred. Some people consider them yearlings after their first winter.

I forget the weight they need to be to be able to breed. It's somewhere around 60-70 lbs. So if she was born normally in May-June, and had good feed to gain weight it's entirely possible for her to be bred. I do believe I read somewhere that they are later than adult does coming into heat.

I was muzzle loader hunting in January a couple years ago. A doe walked up and just as I was going to pull the trigger her bright spotted fawn came up and started nursing. I let her walk. That fawn couldn't have been more than 2 months old.

The only other time I've seen any evidence of this was two fully-spotted fawns with a doe on Thanksgiving day....but they appeared to be a couple months or a bit older.

I've always assumed that most late born fawns don't make it as the sightings here of fawns that fall in this category are rare.

X2

I should of kept the picture, but I just had a pic on my trail cam of a really small fawn with white spots and a Doe on Sept 14th.
I figured she came in heat a 2nd time and got bred. Wonder how that fawn will do this winter.

Wow JPark, I was reading the OPs post thinking it is his southern climate but your post has me surprised

Off the topic of deer, but I’ve always said this pertains to turkeys as well. I’ve seen poults towards the end of summer the size of a softball.

Look at this pic…and yes the date and temp are right, lol. Welcome to the south.

Probably not too good in your northern climate..

Ya I thought it was normal for deer down south to have fawns during fall because of their warmer climate. Figured it was the fawns coming into heat around the 9 month old range for their first time.

I’ll probably have more pics of that fawn and Doe the next time I check that camera. I’ll post the pics if I get them, and remember.

I agree! I think those ones become Wolf food for the most part.

... good eatin right there

Gotta be climate change; better hurry up and buy an electric car.

This is nature, nothing is written in stone, lol. We’re on our third quail hatch of the summer.
Seen “quail sized” poults on opening day of turkey season and in late August.
Just posted a pic of a fawn that was probably dropped about the same time as Swamps pic based on the spots remaining.
Nothing in Nature surprises me anymore, lol. Every year I see something that makes me say Hmmm.

In the early 2000's, we (DNR staff) collected the reproductive tracts from 70 does harvested near the Ga-Fl line in early December. 5% were bred in late Sept. 90% were bred in late October, 5% were not yet visibly bred when they were killed in December. [/quote]

I hunt in central Alabama. Our DNR staff said the majority of our deer are bred during mid January. In recent years our “late rut” in February is very active. Our does start dropping in August/September. I’ve seen a heavily spotted fawn in late December once. We will see a pregnant doe or 2 on game cameras late September. This deer was Sept 1.

I've found pinkie squirrels in attics first week of January so I've learned to never say never with wildlife.

Maybe I should put how I dealt with that one on the poaching thread.

JP,
Pics are great but we take you as a credible outdoorsman LOL. I know your skulls and taxidermy work speaks for itself. Too bad about being Canadian.

Keep track of spots and let us know how that one winters.

Interesting thread line

About 25 years ago I had a fawn with spots about size of a tall beagle walk under me on November 12 !

See what I wonder is did it make it to March 2nd...

In the spirit of the other thread, I've seen some of those Nov fawns walk out of the woods in a lunchbox cooler.

Here in Montana first rut is in Nov. Second one is in Dec. Usually when the yearling or first fawn deer cycle.

I've never seen just-past-spots fawn here in the fall or early winter. And if they did, it wouldn't survive the winter. We've (the SD state game agency) never let out lots and lots of deer tags, the most I've seen for a single tag was for 3 anterless. In the 1980s, a lot fewer tags in East River than today.

I think it was in 1985 and I had 2 tags (the first was as designed shooter for my blind father) and the 2nd was my own tag. Our rifle season for East River is (or typically was) short, usually about 9 days. I dumped a big nice doe for dad and then the next weekend I went out and popped the first deer that jumped up (I had finals to study for). It was a little WT doe. I drove home that night to process it and checked how much it weighed in my arms on a bathroom scale, 64 pounds field dressed (South Dakotans tend to field dress deer and not gut them out at home as some folks usually do). My brother shot a 1 1/2 year buck down on Ft Hood that year (with a .223 Mini-14) and field dressed that young buck weighed 67 pounds. I suspect my little doe that year was born in June from a "2nd rut" December breeding...

I've seen spotted fawns the week of Thanksgiving. I've also seen bucks breed does towards the end of February.

I've seen them in heat in February and March here. Never seen fawns during hunting season that looked that young though. I just kind of assumed the doe didn't stick. We have cows that will for whatever reason keep coming in heat but wouldn't stick so I assume it could happen with deer.

OK, I'm way up North of most of you that posted here, but I saw a pair of spotted fawns last year that were about the size of a Springer Spaniel in the first week of November. That's the first I had ever seen anything like that . Their tracks were about the size of a quarter. I believe one survived the winter according to a neighbor that was watching them.

Dang climate change messing everything up....lol