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Old June 7, 2012, 11:35 AM   #22
Double Naught Spy
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Join Date: January 8, 2001
Location: Forestburg, Montague Cnty, TX
Posts: 12,715
Quote:
I've no clue as to how wildlife biologists do the measuring, but "they say" that there is certainly less scent from fawns and from cottontail rabbits than from other animals. That's from the guys at Texas Parks & Wildlife, anyhow.
TPWD also says that a hog's shield is scar tissue from fighting other hogs, which is equally ignorant.

So here is some TPWD information....http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publicat...1680_05_10.pdf
Quote:
The fawns are born with cryptic-pattern white spots and are virtually odorless. These two features enable the fawn to survive the first few weeks of its life. Its natural defense is being able to lie completely motionless for hours. The doe, whose odor and size would naturally attract predators, purposefully leaves her fawn(s) unattended for hours at a time while she finds food for herself, and in an attempt to keep from attracting predators to her otherwise defenseless offspring.
As noted here, there is no way for a furred animal not to have odor or to somehow not have as much odor. They have plenty of odor, just not odor from musk glands and other mating-related aspects.
http://www.knowhunting.com/article.html?id=39

As noted in the following information, it would seem that the mother does staying away from the fawn much of the time is to help keep predators from being attracted to where the fawn is. Somehow that has morphed into the fawn not having odor.
http://www.buchananforestproperties.com/blog/?p=80

What is really interesting is that fawns apparently gain odor when they are capable of keeping up with their mother. Amazing. No, mothers may stay away from fawns so as to not attract predators to the fawn's location because the fawn isn't sufficiently ambulatory to evade predators.

Yeah, there are lots of biologists and wildlife people that make the claim about the lack of odor, but if you look closely, you will notice that none of them cite any particular study where they have learned the information. It is nothing but folklore.

Part of what is really ironic about the claim of fawns not having odors is that the fawns' mothers identify their particular young by, wait for it....., odor.

The odors of fawns may be reduced, but not because fawns are somehow biologically special in having stealthy body tissues that have no smell. It is likely because of the mother's care of the fawn, keeping it clean via anogenital licking and other cleaning, and then consuming urine and feces produced by the fawn. http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.230...id=56241224953 So yeah, a fawn may not have the nasty smell of puppies that often urinate on themselves and lay and play in their own waste, but the issue isn't because the fawns are special. It is because the mother's care of the fawn's toiletry habits and hygene.
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Last edited by Double Naught Spy; June 8, 2012 at 09:08 AM.
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