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Floods and fawns

Davis21

Davis21

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2018
Messages
362
I live in eastern Arkansas and our state has been smacked hard by the AR river. First out my thoughts and prayers go out to any people on here that have been impacted. I hunt right in the banks of the MS river and it has been high since last September really. It got real bad about the time fawns were starting to drop I’m guessing. Between that and buffalo knats I’m afraid our deep pop. Has taken a hard hit. Any deer biology experts on here have any thoughts?
 
Been dry here (SC) the last month for the first time in a year. I’ve been seeing fawns running around like crazy the last few days. Should make for a damn good turkey hatch too.
 
They have had a while to move out, which I’m glad for (survival) but Adrain’s they will move out and not come back to home area
 
I've never found a dead fawn and the water rises pretty fast from hurricanes. I had trail cameras out during Irma and had lots of activity the day before the storm hit, nothing moving during the storm, and 2 days after does and fawns back up and moving in knee-thigh deep flood water.
 
Actually floods are hard on deer herds, even older deer as they sometimes just refuse to leave (there was a telemetry study that documented this). Anytime there is flooding there is a much higher fawn mortality rate. Especially May/June flooding.
 
I'm in NE AR and fear the same. While there are always berms and high spots the deer can flee to, it significantly reduces available cover/browse.

The WMAs I hunt aren't high volume deer sites anyway, and I have faith I'll be able to find some deer worth hunting but it may be a lot different this year...
 
There are several broken levees in our area. The fawns take a beating. If they can make it to the levee, the coyotes have a hey day with the stragglers. On a good note, the older deer follow the water back to the river banks as it recedes.
 
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