Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 1040: Foundations - A Day in the Life of a Newborn Whitetail Fawn

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Ep. 1040: Foundations - A Day in the Life of a Newborn Whitetail Fawn · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: First Light Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Hey everyone, welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast,
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: which is brought to you by first Light. I'm your host,
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about fawns and
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: how they survive their first few weeks when everything is
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: trying to eat them. We take it for granted how
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: incredible it is that any deer can survive to adulthood,
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: mostly because we don't usually witness, or at least aren't
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: aware of, how many fawns don't get so lucky. It's
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: a lot, and it's pretty wild to think that they
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: are born sort of defenseless, yet enough of them still
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: manage to see their first birthday, even in areas with
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: high predator dencidents. The real story of Bambi is pretty crazy,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: and I'm going to tell it right now. Every spring,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: the Peterson household goes through a similar roller coaster of
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: emotions after getting attached to some baby animals. The most
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: common well eats in our world are ducks and geese,
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: which nests in our backyard pond. The goslings come first,
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: and while they are pretty quick to grow up, you know,
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: enough to be able to run kind of, it's still
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: interesting to see how from day to day we can
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: watch the number of goslings drop. We have a healthy
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: fox population here in the burbs. We have plenty of
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: coyotes too, and we have plenty of birds of prey,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: so it's really no surprise that some goslings are getting whacked.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: Then the mallards come, and then the wood ducks.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Now it's pretty hard to find a cuter critter than
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: a tennis ball sized duckling, all covered in fuzz. But
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: they also must be delicious because they attract a wide
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: range of predators. The hawks do a real number on
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: the ducklings, and it's not on common for one of
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: my daughters to remark in the morning that the mallards
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: are down to six, then five, then four or whatever.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Young animals in the while.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Have it rough, but they aren't without survival strategies. The
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: good geese parents here keep a close watch out, you know,
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: when they're younger feeding, and they often stage up close
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: to taller grass and cover that allows the youngsters to
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: scatter and immediately disappear from overhead predation. Other critters, you know,
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: like frogs or toads, for example, engage in a reproduction
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: style that I've talked about before. You know that results
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: in so many juveniles on the scene at one time
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: that your advantage is, you know, the run of the mill.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Predation can't really wipe out the population to a lot
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: of species, It's just a numbers game. It's called prey saturation.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: It's actually pretty widespread throughout the animal kingdom. Even animals
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: like deer, which are generally only going to produce either
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: one or two offspring, often have a condensed breeding window,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: which results in a condensed berthing window pray saturation. Even
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: the high predator density areas will have some fawns slip through,
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: you know, the most vulnerable stage due partially to this strategy.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: There's just too many of them to all take out.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: But it's not just about the fawns hitting the dirt
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: at roughly the same time that saves them. There's more
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: to it, which is pretty cool. But before I get
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: into that, I want to address the difference between Northern
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: born fawns and Southern born fawns. Up here close to Canada,
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: the bulk of the fawn drop just happened or is
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: about to happen. This is no accident and coincides nicely
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: with the time when they're you know, just a ton
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: of food available for mama so she can produce some
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: high quality milk, but also a ton of cover available
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: for her to stash her fawns away. Down south, the
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: drop happens earlier, and due to their not being such
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: clearly defined seasons, it's often a little bit more spread out.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Northern fawns are usually a bit larger than their southern cousins,
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: which only makes sense when you consider the general size
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: difference between adult deer that hail from either the north
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: or the south. Northern fonds tend to have a little
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: thicker of a coat and often live their lives like
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: their batteries on twenty percent, and they need to conserve energy.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Southern fawns, with their thinner coats, tend to focus less
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: on wasting energy and more on heat avoidance, which is
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: a real issue. The farther towards the bottom of the country,
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: you go. This difference can be framed up another way.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: A northern fawn's real big challenge, besides avoiding predators and
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: a host of other dangers, is to grow enough before
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: winter sets in life is rough for young deer. They
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: aren't likely to command the top spot in the best
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: feeding areas or get to bed in the most beneficial
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: places on the land. This is part of the reason
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: why they are so easy to see, especially in the
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: early part of the bow season. Young deer down south
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: have to answer a different question, which is how can
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: I avoid overheating and getting chopped by predators long enough
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: to reach maturity. That predator question is a big one,
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: and it's always a topic that fires up deer hunters.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: We have almost kind of a bizarre way of thinking
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: about predators. This was highlighted to me this past Turkey
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: season when a good buddy he sent me a pick
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: of a newborn fawn leg which he followed up quickly
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: with a comment about how when he has the time,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: he's going to try to call in some coyotes and
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: send them out. That is not an uncommon reaction to
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: finding a fawn that has been eighty six by a predator,
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: but that place he found that fawn has tons of
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: deer like tons, And I'd argue that if you're going
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: to have a high concentration of deer, hell, I'd argue
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: that a big part of the land management aspect of
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: deer hunting is specifically designed to produce an unnatural concentration
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: of deer. You know the consequence of that is going
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: to be anything that eats deer is likely to move
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: in and set up shop.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: And why wouldn't they.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: I recently listened to a well known deer farmer type
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: of hunter, who was bitching about all the people who
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: set up on his fence lines every year. Look, I
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: get that great, because it just kind of sucks. But
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: I also know there aren't very many people in the
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: entire country who do more to concentrate deer on their
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: land than him. If game animals are a shared resource,
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: which they are supposed to be, and if you hoard them,
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: you know you're likely to attract predators, even if they
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: walk on two legs and hunt not with teeth and claws,
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: but instead with sharp sticks and controlled explosions that send
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: a nice little hunk of lead or maybe copper through
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: the air at two or three X to speed a sound.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: Two other things immediately occurred to me when my buddy
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: texted me about that dead fawn. One was that, yes,
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: coyotes eat deer, and they always have, they always will.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: I don't begrudge them for that because I feel the
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: same compulsion, and I bet you do too. I don't
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: know why it's so fun to hunt deer and to
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: shoot them and all that. I just know that it is,
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: and it's not something I chose. It's just there, and
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: I suspect it's an echo from humanity's long, long history
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: and the fact that success killing an animal like a
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: deer was one of the primary ways in which we
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: were granted another sunrise and the opportunity to make more
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: of us. That coyote out there is motivated by the
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: exact same stuff as you and I. He just doesn't
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: have a choice to have a whole bunch of easy
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: food delivered right to his mouth like we do now.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: It also occurred to me that my buddy didn't actually
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: know whether it was a coyote that killed that faun.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: There are a hell of a lot of other fawn
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: eaters out there. You have the big bad wolf in
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: some places and where they live, they tend to eat
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: a lot of deer, including newborn fawns. But then you
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: have black bears, and boy do they not get enough
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: credit for chopping on Bambi. Bears are masters of finding
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: newborn fawns. And what's worse is that we know, through
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: plenty of research that they specifically target newborn fawns. I mean,
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: think about it this way, at least for northern Yogis.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Spend all winter in a little cave or under a
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: root water in a brush pile, and you wake up
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: after like five months of sleep, and when you finally
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: get out of bed, you have a world full of
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: salad and some protein, but it's mostly lower nutrient stuff
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: right out of the gate. And then after a little while,
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: a nice little tender package of venison gets left out
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: in some grassy field somewhere, or should I say dozens
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: and dozens of nice little packages of tender venison. What's
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: he gonna do? Keep munching on roots and shit? Nope,
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: you wouldn't either. Of course, there are other kinds of
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: fawn eaters out there. Bobcats are one, and I think
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: it's truly fascinating how common they are becoming in some areas.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: I never saw a bobcat my life until probably ten
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: years ago, and now I see them almost every year,
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: in addition to getting trail camera images of them all
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: the time. In fact, in southern Wisconsin this year, I
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: filmed a pair of bobcats making a pretty good stock
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: on my Dave Smith decoys, and it was one of
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: the coolest things I've ever seen.
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: In a wild.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: Cats are unreal predators, and dear know it. I've talked
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: about this on here before, but if you've ever had
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: a domestic cat wander through while you're deer hunting and
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: then had the deer notice that kittie, it's never a
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: non issue. They always blow and stomp and keep a
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: crazy close eye on that cat, which might not seem
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: to make sense considering your average tabby isn't a real
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: threat to pretty much any deer. I think they don't
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: like them because they have a gene deep fear of cats,
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: because some cats throughout their history did represent real danger,
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: and there isn't much difference between how a tiger moves
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: and hunts than a mountain lion or a bobcat or yes,
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: mister Whiskers mcfluffy Butt, who mostly lays around your house
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: waiting to be fed or get a belly scratch. Coyotes
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: and bobcats, and in a lot of places bears are
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: predators that will actively hunt and kill newborn fawns pretty
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: much from the north to the south and out east
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: and in some parts of the West. They like deer,
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: they seem to do pretty well in a wide variety
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: of environments, especially coyotes, so they are just like a
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: prevalent predator. But Southern fawns have a couple other predators
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: to worry about, including faral hogs and even snakes. I
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: didn't know faral hogs would eat a deer until I
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: shot an axis dough in Texas one time, and then
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: farreal hogs eight.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: He But of course they do, because why wouldn't they.
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: I imagine that there are a lot of places where
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: snakes don't eat newborn fawns, but there are areas where
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: they do, and that's pretty wild to think about. So
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: how does Bambi run through the gauntlet and not get
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: snacked on? Well, they mostly don't do much running. In
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: the first few weeks of their life, they'll spend about
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: ninety percent of their time just not moving. This is
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: no accident. But this behavior did help create two myths
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: about fawns that persist today. The first is the whole
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: olderless scent free thing. They aren't sent free, they aren't olderless,
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: and in fact, they have to have scent so mamma
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: can identify who is who. But when you're small and
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: you don't move much, you don't leave a lot of
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: scent around. Factor in that they cake out on the
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: forest floor and their sense signature is just as pretty small.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: The other myth is about the abandoned fawn thing. Every spring,
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: all across the country, people who don't know much about
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: deer find abandoned fawns quote unquote, and they do what
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: they can to help them. But mostly those fawns aren't abandoned.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: They were stashed away through some wisdom does have or acchoir,
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: and they are doing exactly what they are supposed to do.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: You know, when you walk up and realize there's a
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: baby deer laying on the ground in front of you,
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: their default strategy to stay alive is to not move.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: And once you understand that, and you understand that bucks
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: also do that throughout their entire lives, you become a
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: better hunter.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: For it.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: Now, if you started an episode of Family Guy right now,
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: when a new faun was born, by the time the
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: credits were rolling, that fawn would be able to stand.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: If you threw on I don't know, the Titanic right before,
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: you know that faun was born, by the time the
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: credits rolled on that film, the fawn would be able
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: to walk. They can get around pretty early in their life,
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: but they mostly don't do much getting around because that
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: is a prime opportunity for predators to move in. So
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: when they are first born, they might stand up for
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: a few minutes in the morning to nurse, maybe take
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: a little grooming from mama, and then possibly a short
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: walk around the area. But does know that not only
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: is the clock ticking on the whole deal, but that
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: they are also directly responsible for giving away their fawns' locations,
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: So mama doesn't stick around long. After a little snack
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: and maybe a walk about in the morning, the fawn's
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: gonna lay right back down to snooze away the midday.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: And on that note, do you know what's absolutely crazy
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: how rare it is to see a deer sleep. I've
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: gotten trail camera images of bucks that went to sleep
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: usually during the rut, but sometimes not. And once I
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: killed a meal deer buck that took several micro naps
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: in front of me, But I can't honestly remember for
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: sure seeing a white tailed deer of any age that
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: was definitely sleeping, and I've been looking for that a lot.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: They do, though, and no one does it better than
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: young fawns. Throughout the heat of the day, They'll just
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: lay there in the same spot, snoozing frequently and just
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: not moving until mama shows up again for the afternoon
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: or evening feeding session. These nursing sessions are really short
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: and as a side note, I watched this happen last
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: year in northern Wisconsin as a doe fed to fawns,
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: and what was really bananas was that both of the
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: fawn's tales were going so fast they were in a
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: helicopter mode. If you don't know what that means, consider
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: your average Labrador retriever that's used for hunting and he
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: happens to get a very fresh scent of a rooster
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: in his snout and watch him get excited, so excited
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: because he knows that a flush is going to happen
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: and his tail will stop going side to side like
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: windshield wipers, and instead will start going in a circle.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: I think it's pretty cute that fawns do that when
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: they are getting fed. Now, as the sun starts to
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: set the woods switch over to night mode. Does often
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: move their fawns to a new location they get another
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: snack on the way or once they're there. But again,
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: it's all about minimizing movement and staying statues still on
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: the forest floor. I couldn't find a definitive answer to
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: this in any of the deer research I looked up,
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: but it makes me wonder if dose tend to stash
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: their fawns in more open grassy areas during the day
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: and then in the woods at night to sort of
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: play the opposite game with predators. It would seem to
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: make sense that bears and bobcats and coyotes and wolves
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: and whoever else would be less likely to visit a
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: wide open grassy pasture at noon than they would at midnight,
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: which means it might be safer for fawns to be
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: in the timber all night long than out where the tooth.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: Your critters can course and course until they run across
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: them in the knee high grass. It's an interesting thought anyway.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: Whether it's remotely true or not, I don't know. While
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: fawns have the software to be as invisible as they
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: possibly can, they also have some handy hardware. Their stippled
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: coat is one of nature's wonders, I guess, like all
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: deer and their coats are. It allows them to blend
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: in so dang well to so many different types of cover.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: I shot photos of a fawn a few years ago
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: standing in the north woods where the light was coming
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: through and it was all bright beams of sun and dark,
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: dark shadows, and it was one of those moments where
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: I just kind of got it.
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: It just clicked.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: I was like, that little dude has such a perfect
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: paint job for this situation. Now, as the first week
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: tick spy into the second and then the third, both
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: northern and southern fawns grow up fast. It isn't long
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: before they can mostly keep up with mom, and also
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: not long before you see them playing with one another
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: or just kind of generally getting the zuomies. The easy
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: scientific explanation for this is, you know, it's kind of
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: practice for evading real predators. Learning to use your body,
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: the juke and move and change directions quickly and jump high. No,
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: it certainly lends itself to doing those things when a
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: coyote starts running in like a blitzing linebacker. But I'm
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: not so sure it isn't just play that happens to
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: have beneficial side effects. I think deer have more emotions
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: and consciousness than we probably would guess, And I just
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: wonder if it's just fun for a fawn that has
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: been laying around all day not moving to suddenly do
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: some parkore in the field and kind of think of
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: it like recess for grade school kids. Maybe they don't
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: even know, but again, it's kind of fun to think about.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: In bear country, there is a huge uptick in fawn
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: survival once they reach the ten to twelve week range,
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: and that probably goes for nearly all predation. When a
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: fawn can really run, it's not an easy snack for
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: most predators to obtain, although they certainly do keep killing
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: them if they get the chance.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: But it's not so much the four.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: Legged petators that are really the threat then, though, because
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: by the time the bo season starts to kick off,
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: they're going to lose their spots and start to look
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: like adult deer, even though when they stand next to
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: an actual adult deer, even the dimmest of hunters knows
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: what he's looking at. Sometimes that matters, Sometimes that doesn't.
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: And as much as it sucks to think about shooting
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: fawns in the fall, it happens a lot.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: It's just part of the deal.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: They have a tough go of it all through their lives,
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: but it's those first couple weeks that.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: Are the real test.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Think about that the next time you spot a little
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: set of twins plodding along behind a mama. Do and
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: think about coming back next week as I drop more
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: whitetail knowledge.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: That's it for this week. I'm Tony Peterson.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: This has been the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast. If
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: you haven't checked out our podcast Blood Trails by Jordan Siller's,
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: go listen to it. Murder Mysteries set in the outdoors
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: and Jordan does such a good job on it.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: It's absolutely incredible.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: The whole family will like it, but I promise you
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: your wife will.
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: If she's anything like my wife. Check it out.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: If you don't want to check that out, go to
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: the mediater dot com anyway and look at all of
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: the content we drop. We're dropping how to articles, conservation news,
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: new films, new podcasts, literally new content every day. Go
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: check it out, and once again, thank you for all
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: of your support.