Capture and monitoring
We captured adult female (> 1.5-year-old)
white-tailed deer via helicopter net guns (Native Range Capture Service,
Elko, NV, USA). We then affixed very high frequency (VHF) radio-collars
(model M2610B, Advanced Telemetry Systems, Inc., Isanti, MN) to
individuals and inserted Vaginal Implant Transmitters (103 females;
Advanced Telemetry Systems, Inc., Isanti, MN, USA) to aid in neonate
capture (Bowman & Jacobson, 1998; Carstensen, DelGuidice & Sampson,
2003; Swanson et al., 2008).
We captured neonates from 23 May to 23 June in Dunn and Grant Counties,
North Dakota, and in Perkins County, South Dakota, during 2014 and 2015.
We searched for white-tailed deer neonates near expelled VITs, in areas
of known parturition habitat, and near females who showed postpartum
behavior such as isolation or fleeing short distances when approached
(Rohm, Nielsen & Woolf, 2007; Grovenburg et al., 2010). We then
captured neonates by hand or net once we located them. We restrained and
blindfolded neonates upon capture, determined sex, recorded body mass
(kg), and fitted individuals with a M4210 expandable breakaway
radio-collar (Advanced Telemetry Systems, Isanti, MN, USA). We wore
sterile rubber gloves, used no-scent spray, stored radio-collars and
other equipment in natural vegetation, and kept handling time under five
minutes when possible to reduce capture-related mortality. We only
determined sex of radio-collared neonates if individuals were wet from
rain or afterbirth or were too large to fit in the weighing bag. All
handling methods followed the American Society of Mammalogists
guidelines for mammal care and use (Sikes et al., 2016) and were
approved by the South Dakota State University Institutional Animal Care
and Use Committee (Approval No. 13-091A).