smaller than normal deer

[Dave]

The winter of 2016-17 was real tough here. The Game Dept said that 60% of the deer population died that winter. The fawn survival rate that next spring was only 10%. I have been noticing a lot of small yearling does. This year's fawns are now pretty much as big as the yearlings. The mature deer are normal size. My kids were here hunting this last week. They chased a couple big bucks around but never got one. So they shot a couple young bucks. I have shot a number of those young mule deer bucks in the past. These were way smaller body wise than anything i shot in the past. So do you think that being born to a doe that nearly starved to death would have stunted their growth? Do you think they will come out of it or will those 2017 fawns always be runts?
On the good side last winter was real mild, nearly every mature doe has a fawn and lots of twins. Given a few years they will make a come back.

 

[Nesikep]

Can't speak for your area, but here we have a lot of big does, and the yearlings/2 year olds are in nice shape... we didn't have the same kind of winter though.

If they're anything like cows, they should do alright and mature at a similar size, just take them a little longer to get there