rebAL: According to EnCon (I believe), the Whitetail fawn survival rate is about 25% for doe fawn and 15% for buck fawn, and that is after coytes take their 50% or better.
Survival for fawns is better, as I understand, without the mature doe becuase during difficult times the mature does will push/kick the fawns away from the food sources so they can have it for themselves - it is called 'Survival of the Fittest' and wild animals do not exhibit the 'disney-like' human behavioral traits hollywood has so often ascribed to.
I fill my doe tag every year with the biggest, most mature doe I can find - that way I know the fawn loss will be minimalized and I should expect to see larger numbers of Whitetail in the spring - it's worked pretty good that way so far.
I would not take a fawn unless it was injured - I want something larger for my tag.
The last time I took a fawn I had to put it down - a mature doe had kicked it away from one of my bird feeders and when it came back she kicked it harder and broke its back. I watched to make sure it was crippled and not just hurt and then killed the doe and put down the fawn; even the rest of the herd moved away from the doe when she kicked the fawn.
