Fishbonker
Life Member
Link to an Iowa study on fawn survival: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229242
Interesting paper, lots of jargon that was hard for me to wade through. A couple of my thoughts follow:
The study area was in and around Ledges State Park. It breaks down habitat percentages between wood land, grass land, crop areas and residential areas. To me the study area isn't all that representative of the rest of Iowa.
The study was done in 2015-2017, they captured 48 fawns, the highest mortality (overall) was disease with EHD being responsible for the majority of fawn deaths due to disease (2016). The different diseases are broken down in the study as well as the periods of date from capture.
If I read the paper correctly the home/core area is a lot smaller than I would have anticipated but again they are in an area that isn't necessarily representative of the rest of Iowa.
Again, if I read it correctly they only had two sets of twins. I would have expected a much higher rate of twins. An interesting corollary would be survival of fawn twins where only twins were captured and followed or at least enough of a general study so the results could be parceled out.
Other things I learned about deer that the study wasn't about, the study has three separate time frames that encompasses the three phases of fawn growth, from hider to hider follower to follower. It was interesting to see the time intervals that encompassed each phase. Pretty commonsensical when I think about it but it is affirmation of something I thought about. Some other studies with capturing fawns in other states implant a vaginal tracking device that gets expelled when the fawn is born which quickly leads the team to the "drop zone". It increases capture rates but also increases the cost. The Iowa study used grid search during high fawning times.
Anyway, I though it was interesting. Nothing ground breaking but take a look and draw your own conclusions. What else have you got to do?
My HDL (Honey Do List) is finally lower than my HDL (High Density Lipoproteins). First time ever. Stress of an elevated HDL causes a reduction in my HDL. I keep telling my wife if she wants me to live longer she needs to reduce my HDL to increase my HDL which will decrease my cholesterol. I wonder if there is a connection between the bacon and Spam sammich she made me for lunch and the new HDL she came up with while frying the bacon and Spam? Good sammich though.
Interesting paper, lots of jargon that was hard for me to wade through. A couple of my thoughts follow:
The study area was in and around Ledges State Park. It breaks down habitat percentages between wood land, grass land, crop areas and residential areas. To me the study area isn't all that representative of the rest of Iowa.
The study was done in 2015-2017, they captured 48 fawns, the highest mortality (overall) was disease with EHD being responsible for the majority of fawn deaths due to disease (2016). The different diseases are broken down in the study as well as the periods of date from capture.
If I read the paper correctly the home/core area is a lot smaller than I would have anticipated but again they are in an area that isn't necessarily representative of the rest of Iowa.
Again, if I read it correctly they only had two sets of twins. I would have expected a much higher rate of twins. An interesting corollary would be survival of fawn twins where only twins were captured and followed or at least enough of a general study so the results could be parceled out.
Other things I learned about deer that the study wasn't about, the study has three separate time frames that encompasses the three phases of fawn growth, from hider to hider follower to follower. It was interesting to see the time intervals that encompassed each phase. Pretty commonsensical when I think about it but it is affirmation of something I thought about. Some other studies with capturing fawns in other states implant a vaginal tracking device that gets expelled when the fawn is born which quickly leads the team to the "drop zone". It increases capture rates but also increases the cost. The Iowa study used grid search during high fawning times.
Anyway, I though it was interesting. Nothing ground breaking but take a look and draw your own conclusions. What else have you got to do?
My HDL (Honey Do List) is finally lower than my HDL (High Density Lipoproteins). First time ever. Stress of an elevated HDL causes a reduction in my HDL. I keep telling my wife if she wants me to live longer she needs to reduce my HDL to increase my HDL which will decrease my cholesterol. I wonder if there is a connection between the bacon and Spam sammich she made me for lunch and the new HDL she came up with while frying the bacon and Spam? Good sammich though.