Q. 

 O 



O 



Q 



6n 



5- 



4- 



3- 



o 



-Q 



E 



3 

 Z 1 



2- 



Total 



Adults 



Females 



— i 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 



Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May 



Figure 7.4 



Group size by month for 37 radio-collared 2- 

 year-old and older females. 



During summer and early autumn, yearling males were 

 almost equally distributed among all types of social groups 

 (Table 7.6). However, during July, only 10 yearling males 

 (2.4%) were seen with females that had fawns. Information from 

 marked deer indicated that most of the females observed in 

 association with yearling males during summer were either 

 yearling females or non-productive mature females. 



The percentage of solitary yearling males declined from 

 July through the remainder of the biological year as yearling 

 males increasingly associated with females. The greatest 

 degree of association between yearling males and mature males 

 occurred during summer and declined thereafter. The lowest 

 association with other males occurred during the rut. A small 

 sample of 6 3 observations of marked yearling males indicated 

 that most (74.6%) were associated with females during 

 mid- January to mid-May (Table 7.6, Fig. 7.5). 



During summer and early autumn, mature males were 

 typically solitary or grouped with other males (Table 7.6). 

 Very few (<13%) were associated with females during summer or 

 early autumn. During the rut, no mature males were observed 

 with any other male, except when both were competing for the 

 same female. Eighty percent of mature males observed during 

 the rut were in groups containing females, the other 20% were 

 solitary. During early winter, as rutting behavior 



187 



