Coyotes love to snack on fawns. Guessing that might be an issue.
That was my first thought, too. A few years back I read where NM or AZ (forget which) did a study and killed some yotes and the fawn survival rate went off the charts.
Arizona has a casebook study. In the 70's they restored pronghorns to a historical pronghorn range where livestock grazing in the early 1900's had practically destroyed the habitat. Reduced grazing had restored the habitat and the forage was considered excellent.
Initially, the fawn survival rate was very high, then it dropped to almost nothing. Telemetry on the fawns showed high coyote predation.
For the next 4-5 years Arizona started shotgunning coyotes from a helo just prior to does giving birth. Fawn survival rate went way up. The herd grew to a point the biologists felt the herd could prosper with normal coyote predation, so they stopped shooting coyotes. Last I knew the herd has continued to prosper and they've been hunting them for decades now.
It is a classic example of a predator pit.
Casey
