00:00The doe deer has a transmitter on it that emits a frequency and when we turn it on it makes a beep.
00:11Yeah.
00:12Can you hear that?
00:13Uh-huh.
00:14And where it's loudest is the direction which we'll be traveling.
00:17We'll try to sneak up on it so we can find the doe and then we'll find the fawns right after that.
00:21Okay.
00:22Sound good?
00:23Yeah, sounds great.
00:24Are you ready to go?
00:25Alright, let's load up and go.
00:30Okay.
00:38I think we're getting pretty close.
00:43You okay?
00:44Yeah.
00:45Scratchy stuff.
00:48So we've arrived where these fawns were born.
00:51So somewhere in this vicinity we're going to search around and try to find these fawns that are on the ground.
00:56I like to mark it with a piece of flagging so we know kind of where center is and we'll just start searching.
01:01It'll be a very small kind of six to eight pound baby deer trying to be camouflaged on the ground.
01:08So right now we're looking for a baby deer.
01:11It's about probably about that big.
01:13Brooke.
01:14Let me guess, you found it.
01:15No, you did.
01:16See it?
01:17Oh my goodness.
01:20It's so cute.
01:23It's so cute.
01:25We're going to approach it very slowly.
01:27Okay.
01:28It's hiding right now, trying to stay hidden from anything.
01:31So you'll just kneel down and put your hands on it.
01:34Just make sure it doesn't run away.
01:36Oh my goodness.
01:38You're so small.
01:40Okay.
01:41What we're going to do, we're going to weigh this really quick.
01:44If you can pick it up right behind its front legs there.
01:47We're going to put it in with its behind in the bottom there.
01:51It's so small.
01:54Its body weight at birth is very important to its health and survival.
01:58And so we want to know how big it is.
02:00Got to make sure it's not skinny, right?
02:02Yeah.
02:03So you've just weighed her and she is 3.035 kgs.
02:10That's a very good healthy size for her.
02:16Next, we're going to measure some things.
02:19This is just another indicator of how healthy it is.
02:2122.
02:22Let's stretch out its leg there.
02:26Yes, it is.
02:27Okay, right behind her leg.
02:35So this is the radio collar for the fawn deer.
02:38It's very small.
02:39It has some elastic on it so it can grow and this will expand with it.
02:43It's a lot smaller than the elk we did the other day.
02:46So we'll just slip it over its head and it'll stay on tight and stay with it.
02:50We'll be able to track its movements for the next several months.
02:53Awesome.
02:54All set?
03:03So why do you guys do this?
03:05What do you use all the information for?
03:07Good question, good question.
03:09We're trying to monitor the survival and the health of each of these deer.
03:13Mule deer populations are declining throughout western United States and we want to improve that.
03:19We want to make things different.
03:21So we're learning what habitats are important to these deer and how we can improve those habitats so deer can survive better and we can have more deer around.
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