Annual survival and cause-specific mortality of white-tailed deer fawns, and relative abundance of snowshoe hare on Mount Desert Island, Maine

Long, Robert

FIELD WORK: 1991-1995. Monitored cause-specific mortality of deer fawns from birth to 1 year of age. 29 fawns were captured, radio-collared, and monitored daily. Mortalities were investigated to determine causes of mortality. Annual rate of fawn survival was .26. Rate of predator-caused mortality was .52 (coyote accounting for at least 80% of the documented instancesof predation), mortality from drowning was .24, and mortality from collisions with vehicles was .14. No fawns or does were captured west of Somes Sound, presumably because of lower densities of deer there. Fawn home-ranges were also investigated. Daily locations were determined with radio tracking equipment. Home range areas for fawns that survived and fawns that died were not different. Compared relative density of snowshoe hare between MDI (46 transects) and the mainland (Cherryfield). Density of snowshoe hares were estimated using an index of pellet density. 'Based on the relationship between pellet density and hare density in Maine, these median pellet densities translate to hare densities of 0.060/ha on MDI and 0.032/ha on the mainland, a 1.9 fold difference of 0.028 hare/ha. Appendix C contains UTM coordinates of the 46 transects used to sample snowshoe hare pellets. For each transect, also includes estimates of woody debris, density of deciduous and coniferous stems, stem cover unit density, and hare pellet density. /STUDY LOCATIONS:/ /MOUNT DESERT ISLAND/ GIS-CATEGORY 1: Appendix C contains UTM coordinates of the 46 transects used to sample snowshoe hare pellets. For each transect, also includes estimates of woody debris, density of deciduous and coniferous stems, stem cover unit density, and hare pellet density.