What I have found is that if coyotes have plenty of rats, mice and rabbits they are not so hard on fawns. Here where I live there is plenty of cover for fawns, yet the coyotes are hard on them. We do not have the rat and rabbit population that other parts of the state do so my Ibex, Mouflon, Blackbuck and Whitetail are their main diet. That is why I have to keep coyote eradication foremost in my efforts.

I will say again, Fawn survival is a sign of overall herd health. I do not disagree with anything being said above, and people with better heads and lots more experience will be able to give much better arguments about this or that, and it's all good.

Basic biology says an animal population will keep itself in check over time. it does this in a variety of ways, but the number one manner is as population increases, food sources and suitable living conditions decrease while diseases increase and animals become less likely to survive from predation and starvation and natural attrition. As populations subsequently decrease, food sources and suitable living conditions increase, diseases are less communicable, and all this leads to less natural attrition. This should plateau and mean a near constant population if left to nature, aside from disasters such as severe drought, extreme weather/fire, extreme winters, but even then with sustained weather patterns the population will again plateau to a new "normal" population.

We use terms in deer biology such as carrying capacity to denote the maximal amount of deer that can inhabit a certain area so it maximizes deer hunting opportunity but does not inhibit the population negatively. Sometimes, as stumpy is stating, we need to re-evaluate the carrying capacity in an area so that the deer become healthier and more able to sustain themselves optimally. This is a decision only HF deer managers can really make, as a LF deer manager will be simply fighting the influx of deer from neighboring property if they make their property too luxurious for deer. This is does not mean we LF folks can not manage deer somewhat, just not to the levels of HF managers. LF managers need to focus on habitat, food sources, and age structure. We (LF hunters) need not concern ourselves with carrying capacity since that is something we can never control given the WT deers ability to jump.

Fawn crop is one indicator of overall population health.

Stumpy, take that simplification and be done with it. You are now a better man.

Stompy...For fun, I thought I would insert some of your approximate numbers in my computer and give ya an idea what it would look like for your property...just approx.

Bucks = 37
Does = 45
Fawns = 32 as 70%
Density = 11.54
Ratio = 1.22

LOL..good luck young man