Few Fawns Surviving On Chattahoochee National Forest

Early results from an ongoing research study looking into the drastic decline in deer harvest and hunter success in the north Georgia mountains doesn’t bode well for fawn survival.

Only three of 13 fawns tracked by researchers at the Chattahoochee National Forest survived to 4 months.

According to a presentation at the Southeast Deer Study Group meeting in Kentucky, of the 10 fawns that died during the four-month study period, coyotes killed four, black bears ate two (possibly three) and a bobcat killed one.

A fawn survival rate of just 23 percent is alarming. The three-year study will wrap up in 2020. For north Georgia deer hunters, answers and solutions can’t come soon enough.