John Richey runs 10 miles a week, bench-presses 305, and is a former high-school quarterback. Still, it took every ounce of prowess for him to catch a seven-pound, week-old fawn scared up this past summer in Pope County.

Richey, a master’s student in forestry, is one of about a dozen SIUC students working on a research study on fawn survival in deep Southern Illinois. The University’s Cooperative Wildlife Research Laboratory is conducting the project.

Step one? Capture newborn fawns and slip on expandable radio collars. Each collar emits unique beeps that will allow scientists to track the animals during their most vulnerable first year of life.

The three-year venture, which began its first field season this past spring, will yield a crisper picture of population dynamics among downstate white-tail deer.

Biologists with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) requested the study, the latest in 20 years of deer research done at the Wildlife Lab.

"IDNR wants more region-specific data for their deer population model, which (among other things) helps determine hunting levels in different counties," says John McDonald Jr., one of the wildlife lab scientists overseeing the project. "Their model is based on data collected in other parts of the state where we have reason to believe fawn production and survival are higher.

"Deer in northern and central Illinois have access almost year-round to high-protein, high-carbohydrate foods in the form of corn and soybeans. In these southern forested counties, deer just don't have that, so we expect their productivity rates to be less and survival of offspring to be a bit lower."

Females here may deliver only one or two fawns a year, compared to triplets often borne by their sisters to the north. That can make a big difference in lifetime productivity.

Once it gets hard data on any regional differences among deer, IDNR will be able to plug new numbers into population equations for more-accurate estimates of deer populations all over the state. The statistics will guide herd management plans and county-by-county hunting quotas.

On a typical morning last June, Richey joined one of two crews that formed an eight-person skirmish line systematically wading through wet, chin-tall prairie grass, thistles, and thickets in search of fawns.

After nearly two hours of the increasingly hot and humid work, a patch of the woods seemed to spring to life when a 16-inch-tall fawn darted out of an oasis of trees.

Richey, forehead swathed in a red bandanna, sprang into action—bobbing and weaving as he chased the fawn 150 yards through the snarled, damp grass. Then he slipped into a dense thicket, dove head-first into a cold stream, and scooped the fawn out of the water.

Crew members rapidly moved in concert to collect data. 

They slid a little muslin blindfold over the fawn's eyes to ease its anxiety; slipped a radio collar around its neck (the elastic band holding the transmitter is designed to fall away in about a year); weighed and tagged the fawn; measured its hoof to determine age; noted its gender, general health, and capture location; and released it in the vicinity where it was found.

During birthing season—mid-May to early July—the crew succeeded in collaring several dozen fawns, mostly on privately owned land in Pope and Johnson Counties (with the permission of property owners).

Now, two graduate students are following the fawns. Vince Green is focusing on survival rates of fawns in the wild, while Valerie Carter is studying the fate of deer who live closer to people. 

The locations of the collared fawns are tracked closely. If a fawn has died, the team must be able to find it fast in order to determine the cause of death, McDonald explains. The transmitters are sensitive enough to pick up even slight movement; if none is detected for four hours, the signal changes, alerting the crew.

Some fawns could end up on dinner tables when hunting season opens. Deer check stations will gather information on the number of collared fawns harvested by hunters.

The whole data-gathering process will be repeated in 2003 and 2004.

"We're trying to figure out the relative proportions of mortality, whether hunting-related or not," says McDonald. "By the time we have three years of data, it will give us the type of precision that we're looking for in terms of estimating fawn survival rates." 

The project is funded by the IDNR through the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration act.
 

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