Fawns that look small not that uncommon

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Whether you hunt or fish, or even spend much time in the Maine woods, it’s easy to find chances to appreciate our abundant wildlife.

At certain times of the year, many of our wild critters are quite apparent and put on an impressive show for anyone willing to stop and watch.

And when folks start seeing wildlife … and really paying attention … it’s quite common for them to wonder if they’re not seeing something odd.

That was the case this week, with a couple of anecdotal reports of doe deer with smaller-than-usual fawns.

“Was there a reason for that?” I was asked.

As it turns out, probably not.

I went directly to the man responsible for overseeing the state’s deer management efforts, Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife biologist Lee Kantar, and we had a nice chat about does, fawns, and an inherent problem with eye-witness accounts.

“It’s hard to say, when you have anecdotal evidence, what people are seeing,” the scientist explained.

Small, after all, is a relative term. And Kantar pointed out that even in deer of the same age class, there’s going to be quite a bit of disparity in size.

“Most of our deer are born in late May, into mid-June,” Kantar explained.

Most, but not all. Some of the does might have been bred earlier, others later.

That means that the fawns that wildlife watchers are seeing are likely between eight and 12 weeks old.

Thus, the dilemma, Kantar said.

“Fawns grow so fast that even a fawn with a difference [in age] of just two weeks can certainly look different, size-wise,” Kantar said.

And as for the photo of three fawns with a doe, which appeared in Friday’s BDN?

Not surprising, but a good sign, Kantar said.

“If you have a good survival year, you can certainly have triplets surviving,” Kantar said.

Twins are more common, but Kantar said he saw a doe in his neighborhood which was also showing three fawns the ways of the world.

And he said that a colleague from New Brunswick recently saw a doe with quadruplets.

“[That is] really unusual,” he said.

CWD still a concern

While the state’s deer herd apparently remains free of chronic wasting disease, Kantar and the DIF&W aren’t resting on past test results.

“Unfortunately, the disease is such a strange thing and it’s such a persistent thing,” Kantar said. “The prions … that are the cause of the disease can persist in the environment for a long time.”

Chronic wasting disease is a fatal disease of the nervous system that is similar to mad cow disease. It has been found in deer herds in various states and has been detected as far east as New York.

Kantar said researchers across the nation have been focusing on the transmission of the disease and have learned more about how long the infectious prions can survive, even as a previously diseased deer dies and decomposes.

And he said there is some evidence that soils with certain chemical qualities preserve the prions longer than other soils do.

“That’s the scary thing,” he said. “How many years [of negative tests] does it take to say that you’re in good shape? We’re vigilant. Last year we had 906 samples we tested. All were negative.”

Kantar said the annual collection of samples from hunter-killed deer is tough logistically but must be performed.

“We’re trying to sample deer throughout the whole state, from York to St. Francis, and we’re trying to get deer every week of the firearms season, and earlier. It’s tough to catch up with those deer,” Kantar said.

Kantar said some money to fund the ongoing research has come from a federal grant, and in this year’s grant proposal, DIF&W staffers listed the same sampling protocol that was used in 2006.

Specifically, that protocol calls for focusing special attention on deer shot in communities that may be of higher risk.

“Any town that has a winter feeding operation where people feed more than 100 deer, or any town that has a domestic cervid [deer] farm, we try to get at least four hunter-harvested deer from those towns,” Kantar said.

There are 148 towns in Maine that qualify for that special attention, Kantar said.

State wants help from hunters

A year ago, the Maine DIF&W sent out a voluntary survey to randomly selected deer hunters, looking for some information to help in their management of the state’s deer herd.

The response, unfortunately, was less than overwhelming.

But state officials are determined to learn as much as they can from the state’s hunters, and Kantar said a new batch of surveys will be sent out in September to 8,000 more hunters.

If you receive one, Kantar and his DIF&W colleagues hope you’ll take the time to fill it out and return it.

“It’s important when people get these things in the mail that they send them back to us because we actually use this data in our management system,” Kantar said. “It’s for the better management of the herd, so it’s helping us and it’s helping the state’s management of both deer and moose.”

Kantar said there are questions asking how many deer and moose each hunter saw, which helps management efforts for each species.

Condensing a variety of questions into an easy-to-use format proves challenging, but Kantar said if hunters keep track as the seasons progress, it proves easier than trying to remember every day of hunting at the end of the season.

“We really want to know how many days did they hunt deer, but it gets complicated, because you can hunt archery, muzzleloader, firearms, crossbow, and you can hunt in any district that you want,” Kantar said. “We ultimately want to know every district they hunted in and how many days with each weapon, so that gets pretty tough to put that onto a survey sheet.”

Kantar said that he and DIF&W staffers are also hoping to get a survey form posted on the department Web site.

Coming up …

Next week I’ll share some information gleaned from DIF&W wildlife biologist Randy Cross, who oversees the ongoing field study of Maine’s bear herd.

Cross spends a lot of time in the woods, and with the state’s hunting season for bears over bait looming, his comments will surely prove enlightening.

MYFGA banquet set

Jim Redding of Maine’s Youth Fish & Game Association called this week to let folks know about the group’s upcoming fundraising banquet.

The annual event is always a lot of fun, and this year promises to be no different.

This year’s banquet will be held on Sept. 8 at the Old Town Elks lodge. Festivities begin at 4 p.m.

Attendees will be treated to a spaghetti dinner, and plenty of silent and live auctions are on tap. The fee is $5 for adults and $3 for students, while kids age 5 and under get in free.

Maine’s Youth Fish & Game Association has been doing great work to provide education and recreation options for the area’s youngsters, and this is a great chance to help organizers in their worthwhile efforts.

Thanks to community support, the MYFGA has built a fantastic clubhouse on Pickerel Pond outside of Milford and regularly schedules youth outdoor events there, including weeklong summer day camps.

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.