Hope Of An Incredible Buck

Hope Of An Incredible Buck

Imagine what could have developed on their heads if average rainfall had occurred.

Story and photography by Bob Zaiglin

With temperatures breaching the century mark through the latter part of spring and throughout the summer of 2022, it generated much angst amongst those of us considered stewards of white-tailed deer.  To make things even worse, minimal to no rainfall occurred during the spring period catalyzing the impact the intense heat had on not only deer, but more importantly the vegetation they depend upon, not only for survival, but antler growth as well.  In some cases, climatic conditions were actually life threatening, but white-tailed deer are survivors and weathered the storm, at least the adult animals.

It was a different story for fawns, particularly during the first few days following birth in July when they are quite sedentary and dependent on the understory that provides shade from the unbearable rays of sun and escape cover from predators.  Without adequate rainfall, the grass and weeds they depend upon were virtually non-existent and a substantial number of fawns perished to extreme heat.

Some of the survivors endured a little longer only to be preyed upon by predators that took advantage of the lack of escape cover.  As a result, few fawns survived the extenuating circumstances, which will be felt six and seven years from now when a dearth of mature bucks will occur.

Extremely poor fawn crops were not the only observation I made while conducting aerial deer surveys throughout the fall of 2022.  Antler size was also negatively impacted by the intense drought as well.

Even bucks in the five and six year age classes exhibited antlers with underdeveloped shorter tines and beam lengths, which was a direct result of the absence of regeneration brush they depend on, along with the scarcity of the protein fortified forbs that are required to jumpstart antler size early in the antler-growing period.  But even though average antler size decreased, I did observe some exceptional bucks.

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