Breeding Records of Whitetail Deer in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan

Ask any deer hunter, do Michigan whitetails breed? and he will probably say, During the month of November. To be sure, many hunters talk of seeing matings occur during the buck hunting season which in Michigan extends from November 15 to 30. Actual dates when successful matings were supposed to have occurred, however, are difficult to secure. Accurate information of fawning dates is even scarcer. When we consider how secretive a deer is, it is little wonder that such information is notably lacking in literature. Information on the breeding season, however, is important in management. For this reason, the following data are presented, even though most of them were secured from captive animals.