Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies

Handling techniques for x-raying trapped doe deer are described. Myothesia was used as an anaesthetic at the rate of 1.5 cc. per 5 pounds body weight. A portable x-ray machine with maximum output of 30 MA and 80 KV was used to x-ray eight dead and forty-eight live deer. Pictures were made of yearling deer (12-14 cm. width) at 0.5 second exposure time, 36-inch focal-film distance, 25 milliamps and 65 kilovolts. Machine settings were the same for older deer, except kilovoltage, which increased 2 kilovolts per cm. of deer width. Radiographs indicated that 52 deer contained an average of 0.83 fetus and none of the 23 yearlings were shown to be pregnant. The adult does averaged 1.5 fetuses. Aging of fetal images on the x-ray is discussed. Evidence of prenatal mortality was not found.

Three 160 acre deer enclosures were stocked with 2, 4, and 8 deer respectively. Track counts were made simultaneously on prepared surfaces in the enclosures. It was found that the track counts were not directly proportional to population size. Thus it appears that track counts are not a valid measurement of population size, if a linear relationship through the origin between population size and number of tracks is assumed. The track counts were able to detect that there were differences in population size, but it did not tell us the magnitude of this difference.