Deer breeding success...numbers.

[Antonyweeks]

Hello folks
I was chatting with a retired vet today and he asked me what the 'success' rate of red deer was in terms of percentages of young that make it to adulthood with particular reference to the red deer in the South West. In any given herd there will be a percentage of breeding females and of those I wasn't sure how many successfully carry their young to full term and then of those young how many make it to adults!
I've looked in the books I have on the shelf and actually there are some 'generic' figures but I wondered if anyone had any up to date knowledge? I'm assuming that the herd is healthy and food resources plentiful.
Following on from that, with the big increase in fallow numbers, do they have similar 'success' rates as red deer? Opinions very welcome.

 

[NickJ]

In my experience:

Red deer have few predators and are very healthy so apart from human intervention (culling, poaching, RTCs) most will make it to adulthood. In the Highlands prolonged periods of wet or wet snow in the winter with limited access to shelter can see significant mortalities but that won't occur in the SW England obviously.

In prime conditions (best feeding) red deer will breed most years (maybe skipping a year or two) from when they are sexually mature at their second rut (c16 months) until they are past their optimal breeding age of around 12-14 years (older in parks & farms) when they will be barren most years. I haven't had anything to do with the reds in the South West but would guess that their feeding is near optimal.

That differs from in the Highlands where a hind will often not breed until her third rut and then only have a calf every other year until around 10-12 years of age when they will be 'yeld' more often. The NS research from Rum most relevant here.

I read somewhere that early in the foetal development if conditions are harsh to the female is suffering she can absorb the foetus.

Fallow generally would be the same as reds. They obviously both mainly have a single young.

 

[hoodwink]

I believe for all practical purposes its taken as 75 percent of the female population, likewise with fallow and Sika.