In the Outdoors: Matriarchal ways

By Oak Duke, a mother doe leads triplets through a dangerous world

    As we chug through the dog days of summer, wild mothers are acting out their own specific and unique strategies for raising their “young ‘un’s” and teaching, training them how to forage.

    Some have help from their male mates.

    But others such as whitetails and wild turkeys are moms on their own… for the most part.

    After the breeding season, which is in the fall for whitetails and in the spring for turkeys; bucks and gobblers reform their bachelor groups and have nothing to do with raising youngsters.

    And anthropomorphic as we may lean, their patterns work out just fine.

    Hen wild turkeys seem to be extending their breeding season out of neccessity in the spring as our climate warms.

    Used to be… back in the 20^th Century, that most hen turkeys bred in April and were incubating their clutches in nests under brambles and downed treetops during May here in the northeast.

    But nowadays, with earlier spring warm-ups, it is quite apparent that things in the turkey world have changed and turks have been forced to adapt.

    Turkeys that nest too early of course risk having fluffy little poults (baby turks) in a harsh, cold, challenging and damp environment with a lack of ground cover, forbs and grasses and essential protein-packed food like grasshoppers for the little ones.

    But now we see turkeys breeding again, later… even in June and nesting again.

    Another successful strategy that hen turkeys employ is to bring their broods together.

    Last month (July) I watched three hen turkeys with about 25 little ones slowly glean and pick through a field.

    All the while, the three mamas were on alert with their sharp eyes tuned for any danger.

    And there are many critters that like turkey on the menu, from ground predators such as coyotes and foxes, to airborne assassins such as hawks and owls, even eagles.

    The foraging turkey broods were comprised of three different sized poults, from tiny robin-sized youngsters, to pigeon-sized, and even a couple almost the size of a hen pheasant.

    And by the size of the poults, we can quite accurately estimate when the turkey breeding cycle took place, in three separate phases.

    Whitetail does raise their fawns in a different way.

    When the little ones are first born, the doe places them in an area and comes back to nurse them, after leaving the immediate bedroom daily to feed.

    Soon, depending on the individuals, the little spindly-legged fawns begin following their moms. This puts them in greater danger from prowling predators such as coyotes, black bears, and the relative newcomer to our neck of the woods here in Western NY, the bold fisher, really a weasel…imagine of Arnold Schwarzenegger-like proportions.

    But no matter how efficient the hunter, since whitetails breed at that same time in the fall, the flush of fawns actually overwhelms the market…flooded.

    Gestation timing, after a vibrant rut in the fall, scatters fawns over our fields and woods in May and early June, en masse.     The actual gestation period, or length of pregnancy in whitetail deer is always 200 days, give or take a few, so, the result is… fawns hit the ground at almost the same time.

     A sizeable percentage of fawns are lost, but the lucky ones quickly grow and are able to outrun, out dodge, and out juke their opponents in short order.

    Mother deer place their fawns in zones where they know its safe.

    Well-meaning people think fawns are abandoned in these cases, near homes and barns. But the doe knows exactly where she thinks is a best nursery and will come back after she forages or takes some well-deserved time to socialize with her tribe, more like a sorority.

    Once in a while a small buck will be seen with does during the summer, but these little boys are the exception. Evidently, some young bucks do not want to leave their maternal safety zone  as most of their male cousins already have.

    But soon, their moms will kick the little bucks out too. And they will have to be a man, figure out and make their way in the real world.

    The doe fawns have it seemingly easier at first, and are allowed to work into the doe group, starting out at the bottom of the very aggressive at times pecking order, and eventually work their way up.

    Doe groups are led by the matriarch, long-nosed doe, the others are often her daughters, granddaughters, and nieces.

    The young buck, though a bit shy at first, will eventually find other bucks and typically meld into a bachelor group and there, over time ascend on his way up in that hierarchy…but only socializing with females during the breeding season.

    Predators teach their young how to forage too. We call it hunting.

    It has been fun this summer watching a male and female Cooper’s hawk teach their young how to…of all things swim after frogs.

    Osprey and eagles are expected to go after water-borne animals.

    But our local hawks will evidently find food wherever they can to feed their babies too, and then just like the other mothers, train the young ones how to be a successful forager… whether born a hawk, or born a turkey, or born a deer.