Deer Management News This Week

Round-table meeting cuts through disease haze July 5, 2020 Arkansas, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
... In 2004-05, hunters killed 27,032 deer in Wisconsin's disease eradication zones. Sharpshooters shot 1,382 deer and trapped 102 deer.  "The cost was $478 per deer, and $768 per deer in 2005," Kroll said... In spite of the expenditure of $100 million in public funding and thousands of animals killed, eradication efforts have not been successful"...

Mild winter and spring could boost deer numbers, antler size July 4, 2020 West Virginia, Charleston Gazette-Mail
... “We had abnormally mild weather through the winter months, so deer should have made it through the winter on a pretty high nutritional plane ... Reproduction appears to be pretty good.” ...  largely offset by a 47% drop in white oak and a 49% drop in chestnut oak..,

Elk return to Kentucky, bringing economic life July 3, 2020 The Baltimore Sun
... Two independent consultants have estimated that it could draw more than 1 million annual visitors and add more than $150 million per year to the regional economy... the last one was killed before the Civil War. By the 1900s, few residents remembered there had once been elk in the state... Kentucky is now home to the largest population of elk east of the Mississippi...

... We evaluated the short-term (<10 years) impact of white-tailed deer browsing on woody structure and composition in northcentral Pennsylvania... Our results from large, operational-scale timber harvests combined with those from previous small-scale studies stress the potential value of deer exclusion fencing to achieve successful forest regeneration...

Deer researchers battle the cause and effect of chronic wasting disease July 2, 2020 Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
... In the plan’s most controversial proposal, sharpshooters would be hired to thin deer populations in areas with unsatisfactory hunter harvest rates. “Targeted removal” would use paid shooters to exterminate random deer in some infected areas...

Decision To Reduce Doe Tags In Northern Counties Draws Mixed Reaction July 1, 2020 Wisconsin, Wisconsin Public Radio News
... Several CDAC chairs voiced frustration with the decision, including Wayne Norling, chair of the Burnett County CDAC. The county was among those who will see a 50 percent cut in the number of permits they recommended for people to hunt on public lands.   “We're charged with suggesting how to manage the deer in this county via the CDACS, and they're choosing to manage from Madison anyway,” ...

Roadkill Reduced During Lockdowns, but Traffic is Increasing Again July 1, 2020 Smithsonian
... The study by UC Davis compared this year’s reported roadkill rates to around the same time of year in 2015 through 2019 ... Most animals killed by cars are deer and elk... in Maine, which had the highest daily roadkill rate of more than 15 animals per day on average, the stay-at-home order reduced roadkill by 45 percent...

White‐tailed deer neonate survival in the absence of predators  JR Dion, JM Haus, JE Rogerson, JL Bowman - Ecosphere, 2020
...  Non‐predation‐related mortality causes in our study area resulted in survival rates comparable to regions with established predator communities. Non‐predation‐related mortality may be the ultimate driving factor controlling neonatal survival in other regions but can be obfuscated by more proximal mortality sources, such as predation...

... We are starting to see an increasing number of reports from Tesla owners about Autopilot doing some really aggressive maneuvers to avoid crashes.  In this new example, a Tesla owner shares a video of Autopilot swerving to avoid a deer at the last second... 

Climate change: Spring is starting too early for deer June 30, 2020 esa.org
... This results in changes to the food supply during critical periods of the fawns’ growth. Deer populations at lower altitudes are particularly affected, according to a study by the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL...

... The individuals involved left most of the elk carcasses to waste and recovered only the antlers and choice cuts of meat from others.  “It seemed as though they just couldn’t stop killing,” ...

... Preliminarily, wolf numbers appear to be a major environmental influence that causes the elk herd to abandon the Gros Ventre in favor of the National Elk Refuge... Wyoming Game and Fish officials said it’s undesirable to have wolves push most of the elk out of the Gros Ventre...

...  the statewide limit on antlered deer first went into effect in 2017.... Resident hunters get a set of three buck tags, which are good for any buck. They also can purchase two other buck tags which have antler restrictions ... “That serves to protect a very high percentage of year-and-a-half-old bucks,” ...

Continue to be on the lookout in case deer have EHD June 26, 2020 Iowa, Des Moines Register
... there was some suspicion of a couple epizootic hemorrhagic disease cases in Warren County and on the border of Clarke and Decatur counties two weeks ago... deer that are acting strangely or are deceased near water sources ...

Pennsylvania CWD Areas Expand June 26, 2020 Pennsylvania, PA.gov
...  tested 15,686 free-ranging deer and 161 free-ranging elk in 2019. The vast majority of those were hunter-harvested animals.  Of the total, 204 white-tailed deer tested positive for chronic wasting disease... With 2019’s new cases, there now have been 453 CWD-positive free-ranging deer found in Pennsylvania since the disease’s emergence in the state in 2012..,

... For mule deer, population numbers have declined in Oregon and throughout the West since their peak in the 1980s, due to many factors including nutrition, vehicle collisions, poaching and predation. Many units are below management objectives. Biologists believe a general season is no longer an appropriate tool for managing mule deer..,

Proposed changes to Oregon Deer Hunting Following Over 50 Percent Decline in Mule Deer - June 26, 2020 ODFW


Update: Southeast deer movement study June 26, 2020 Minnesota, DNR News
... DNR biologists continue to monitor the 28 deer (19 does, 9 bucks) collared in 2019 and the additional 46 fawns (27 does, 19 bucks) collared in February 2020... While most fawns' travels average 11 miles, some move farther... Learn more and watch for updates on the newly updated study webpage...

Deer Lottery Held, Licenses Remain June 25, 2020 North Dakota, NDGF New
... More than 81,000 individuals applied for a deer gun lottery license, in addition to about 12,600 gratis applicants. The 2020 deer gun proclamation allows for 69,050 deer gun season licenses...

Managing native vegetation through prescribed fire is a great way to increase the carrying capacity of a property for deer and other wildlife. - June 25, 2020


... Public land in several Northwoods counties will see a reduction in the number of antlerless deer taken during the fall deer hunts... "For decades we've had an over harvest on public land which (has) in my opinion decimated the population...

An interview with Cidney Bowman about the U.S. 97 passing lanes project in Klamath County which includes a wildlife undercrossing to assist deer and other wildlife migration. - June 24, 2020 Oregon


... "Climate change is drastically affecting their food supply during migration," said University of Wyoming researcher Ellen Aikens, who analyzed 19 years of drought records going back to 2001 ... "In dry years, they get only 50 percent of the benefit that they get in an average year," ...

...  Fast-moving and intense flames are causing wildlife to flee... "We have black bears, deer, javelinas, bighorn sheep, some elk ... The vegetation that grows back after the wildfire is actually more nutritious for wildlife ...

... Continenza said, hunting, as the least expensive alternative of three -- including using sharpshooters and sterilization -- will be examined more closely... count found that South Euclid had 130 deer or more living within its borders, or about 28 per square mile...

... The draft plan is posted online. Scott Edberg, deputy chief of wildlife for Game and Fish said if approved, the plan will be the starting point for Game and Fish to move forward with deer and elk management in the face of CWD...

Environmentalists renew effort to protect Southeast Alaska wolves June 22, 2020 Alaska, KRBD
... Many resident hunters insist the wolf population is under-counted and blame predators for the decline of the deer population. Conservationists point to the legacy of clear cut logging for the loss of deer habitat...

... Population estimates indicated that there were 34 mountain lions in the Pine Ridge area from May to June 2019, which was down from 59 in a 2017 estimate ... The Niobrara Valley and Wildcat Hills are also home to mountain lions, but estimates are not kept for those areas..,

Tuning oral-bait delivery strategies for red deer in Mediterranean ecosystems J Martinez-Guijosa, L Casades-Marti… - European Journal of Wildlife …, 2020
...  Potential tools for deer management include the delivery of contraceptives ... Our results show that alfalfa baits are the least palatable but the most deer-selective type of bait, whereas feed and molasses baits are highly palatable but low specific (mean bait consumption rates on the ground were 0.811, 0.949, and 0.955, respectively). The appropriate season for oral treatments using alfalfa baits both on the ground and in deer feeders is late summer (mean bait consumption rate on the ground for alfalfa-based baits was 0.939 in summer period). These results indicate that alfalfa baits are sufficiently palatable and specific in summer for them to be an efficient means to deliver treatments to red deer in Mediterranean ecosystems...

Black-tailed deer ‘slightly overabundant’ in Marin County, study finds June 19, 2020 California, Marin Independent Journal
... survey of Marin County’s black-tailed deer found the local population is slightly overabundant, but coyotes may be playing a role in keeping the population in check... The study, published this year in The Journal of Wildlife Management ...

The Search for Genetic Clues to Determine Chronic Wasting Disease Susceptibility June 18, 2020 USDA.gov
... In March 2020, Texas A&M published a paper ... was able to identify highly susceptible animals with a greater than 80 percent accuracy rate by analyzing DNA samples from 807 farmed white-tailed deer taken from across the United States between 2014 and 2018...

Conservation Officers have received calls about people shooting animals from inside their vehicles, so they decide to set up a deer decoy to try and catch them. - June 18, 2020 New Hampshire


... Just shy of 28,000 Wisconsin residents entered the drawing for one of four once-in-a-lifetime elk tags...  For each $10 application fee, $7 is earmarked for elk management, habitat and research in Wisconsin. Almost $11,000 in donations were also received ...

... The project, “The Emergence of Chronic Wasting Disease in Minnesota: Transmission across a Landscape of Plants, Soils, Water, and Deer,” will receive $249,000 over two years ... Emerging evidence points to plants, soils, and water as potential reservoirs for CWD prions, fueling fears of contamination in agricultural products and water ...

... The original bill allowed the use of air bows by disabled hunters during archery season for deer, but was amended to allow any hunter to use them... House Bill 1309 ...

... Washington’s elk and deer numbers have plummeted in the last 24 years ... State biologists interviewed off the record for this article state that Washington deer and elk are failing massively due to our unwillingness to control predators...

Winter Survival Estimates For Mule Deer and Elk in Idaho Above Average June 15, 2020 Idaho, bigcountrynewsconnection.com
...  After a relatively mild winter, statewide survival of radio-collared mule deer fawns and elk calves in Idaho was above average through the end of May, the final month of Fish and Game’s monitoring period.  Statewide, 73% of radio-collared elk calves and 63% of mule deer fawns survived through the winter..,

Record doe permits proposed for fall deer hunt June 15, 2020 Maine, observer-me.com
... Bieber said that there had been over the past 10 years a consistent under-harvest of does ... The buck-to-doe ratio in Maine, says Bieber, is about 2.5 does to 1 buck ... no doe permits being issued in Maine’s northernmost wildlife management districts ..,





Searching the internet to find and conserve deer information.  

Deer in the News

... A frightened baby deer had fallen into a building window ... the animal, described as over-caffeinated, didn't appreciate the police officer's help ... repeatedly slide through his hands back into the well...

...The new owners of Deer Haven Park, the site near Seneca Lake where white deer roam, are getting set to open the park to drive-thru auto tours...

Rescue of Young Deer trapped in wrought iron fence - June 25, 2020


A deer was spotted in a person's backyard accompanied by two albino fawns. They would visit the yard every morning to hang out, eat clover leaves, and play. - June 23, 2020


... Conservation officers are looking for a person who illegally shot and killed a white-tailed deer fawn near Rose City ...

...  fawns who have been injured or even left alone in the wild... they are often taken to Little Ponderosa Zoo & Rescue in Anderson County... we do our best to try to get these guys back into the wild ...


These blacktail deer and Roosevelt elk were attracted to new plant growth on some recently made trails. We caught some mothers with fawns on camera. - June 14, 2020 Washington


... in northern Siberia, Robert Lozi and his team discovered a number of artifacts that are apparently associated with reindeer teams. Radiocarbon dating established an age of about 2000 years. About this writes the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory...

 Fawn rescued from manhole in Allegan County June 13, 2020 Michigan, WOOD-TV
... Crews said the manhole cover was missing, and they found a very young fawn. The fawn was safely returned to the nearby woods...

Fawn seized, euthanized June 10, 2020 Oregon, Lincoln City Homepage
... Over a two-week period, the black-tailed deer lived in the Ready’s house and played with her dogs — apparently dooming the poor creature... . “The deer fawn was evaluated and determined to not be suited for release and was humanely euthanized by ODFW biologists.” ...

... thought she was dead. Then he saw her lift her head ... took off running ...  into the woods ... a lump on the ground... was a fawn. Then he heard a cry and found a second fawn.  ... “She had bled out and was gone,” ... 

  Morristown Man, Police Save Baby Deer From Storm Drain June 9, 2020 New Jersey, Patch
... Steinman had the idea of using one of his bedsheets as a safe hook around the animal. Working together, they were able to secure they were able to secure the deer and get it safely removed from the storm drain...

... "Upon further investigation the deer had given birth to a fawn, sadly the momma deer did not make it. Engine 3’s crew was able to give the care needed to keep the fawn healthy and dry until the arrival of Virginia Department Of Game. The fawn was taken to a wildlife rehab center ..." [from fire dept. Facebook page]

Best Way to Save Young Wildlife: Leave Them Alone May 30, 2020 Alaska, Alaska Native News
...  black-tailed deer mothers stay away from their newborn fawns to avoid drawing predators.  “Does will cache them for several hours while they go off and feed,” he said. “It’s a strategy. It’s safer for the fawn to not be with the doe while she’s feeding. It’s not orphaned, and people are actually kidnapping it.” ...