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3-year fawn study indicates stable survival rates

3-year fawn study indicates stable survival rates

By Pennsylvania Game Commission

Three years of field study, 165 captured fawns and more than 200,000 trail-camera photos have demonstrated Pennsylvania has good, stable fawn survival.

The research, which wrapped up in 2017, was started to see if predators, particularly coyotes, were taking more fawns than documented in a two-year study that began in 2000. The Game Commission and Pennsylvania Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Penn State (PCFWRU) collaborated to design the study and conduct fieldwork.

Although the playing field had changed in the study areas when the second study began in 2015 when Pennsylvania had more predators and deer, the results essentially were the same, according to Christopher Rosenberry, who supervises the agency’s deer and elk section. “There was no evidence that predators were taking too many of our fawns in any of our 23 Wildlife Management Units.”

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