The art of avoidance: bedsite use, antipredator strategies, and predation risk in white‐tailed deer fawns

Neonates are most susceptible to predation early in life, and a better understanding of behavioral and habitat‐related factors that influence mortality risk may be central to juvenile recruitment. Adaptive bedsite use to avoid predator detection may be an important component of survival. We identified the mortality bedsites of neonatal white‐tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ) depredated by coyotes ( Canis latrans ) and compared them to bedsites of surviving fawns, including initial capture bedsites from the same individuals and paired bedsites from a surviving marked fawn, to assess variation in habitat characteristics that may influence a fawn's ability to evade predation. We also compared bedsite characteristics by neonatal antipredator strategy (e.g., hider, follower) to further examine variation in bedsite use. Overall, we found greater horizontal visibility (i.e., field of view) of surviving fawns at paired and capture bedsites compared to mortality bedsites, such that for every 1% increase in horizontal visibility, the odds of the bedsite being a mortality bedsite decreased by 5% compared to a capture bedsite. We found no difference in vegetation height or fawn concealment among bedsites, indicating concealment cover alone did not impact predation risk throughout the study area. We found no difference in bedsite use by antipredator strategy, although there were patterns of fawns using bedsites with increased horizontal visibility during both the hider and follower strategies. We also found hiders tended to use bedsites with greater overstory cover likely to enhance concealment, whereas followers showed a trend toward reduced overstory cover to potentially improve escape routes (via increased sightlines and escape cover) and allow for early detection and flight from predators. Our findings highlight the importance of using diverse habitat structures and reveal notable shifts in overstory cover use by antipredator strategy.