Deer Management News This Week

Fish and Wildlife seeks ‘historic’ hunting expansion May 26, 2020 Oregon, East Oregonian
...  USFWS’s massive proposal creates or expands hunting and fishing at 97 wildlife refuges ... The USFWS is taking public comments on the proposal until June 8 ... the Department of Interior didn’t require an environmental impact statement... we performed isolation and characterization of deer tongue epithelium tissue-derived MSCs...

... The ability of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to differentiate into lineage specific tissue types ... Deer MSCs have been isolated from antler and bone marrow... 

... a high percentage of all new deer fawns are born within this period of about three weeks ... There is some safety in numbers here. Playing the odds, when most vulnerable fawns are out there concurrently, it is more difficult for predators to eat all of them...

... third case of Chronic Wasting Disease in a captive breeding facility ... a 6-year-old female mule deer that had been purchased from out of state ...  "Depopulation is pending the indemnity plan approval.” ...

Conservation Congress Spring Hearing Results May 25, 2020 Wisconsin, WXPR
... Over 32,000 people opposed the idea of requiring non-toxic bullets and slugs (basically for deer and bear) on state lands... They don’t seem to make the connection between the lead poisoning in birds that eat lead BBs as grit or ingest lead while feeding on deer carcasses and gut piles in fall and winter...

Colorado wildlife agency’s past research raises questions about mountain lion hunting levels May 24, 2020 Denver Post
... CPW biologists determined, from research done between 2004 and 2014 for the purpose of guiding agency decision-making, that wildlife managers cannot let hunters kill more than 12% of lions a year without triggering a decline, according to a report summarizing results and preliminary analysis...

... Deer were equally likely to obtain diets that satisfied requirements in treated and untreated plots, indicating that although herbicide application reduced understory biomass and DE intake, it did not explain whether deer were able to meet requirements. We also found that the biomass of deciduous shrubs and trees, forbs, and suitable forage was ~25 times greater in 4–9 year old stands than closed canopy stands (14–90 years old), indicating the importance of maintaining early seral habitat for sustaining populations of black-tailed deer...

BLM releases final analysis of proposed Blackrock Land Exchange May 22, 2020 Idaho, Idaho State Journal
... “The Chinese–Peak Blackrock Canyon area provides outstanding recreational opportunities, while protecting crucial habitat for mule deer and other native species... The final EIS is available for 60 days on the BLM ePlanning project website ...

   The white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) has been documented as occurring in 21 of 33 counties in New Mexico. In the Sandia Mountains of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, a camera trap captured 25 images of a male O. virginianus in November 2017. This represents a new occurrence for Bernalillo County and the Sandia Mountains.

... ground counts for mule deer were collected by area biologists to estimate over-winter survival... The post-season survey showed 61 fawns per 100 adults, which is above the average of 55 fawns per 100 adults... Winter mortality was likely minimal across the region ..,

...  an all-time high of 109,890 ...the under-harvested does last year did not meet our harvest goal, so we have to issue far more permits. That, coupled with the very mild winter we had last winter resulted in a higher than typical over-winter survival of deer.   ...  State biologists now estimate the statewide deer population at close to 300,000 ..,

Game and Fish increase licenses for deer gun season May 20, 2020 North Dakota, The Bismarck Tribune
... 69,050 deer gun licenses available to hunters, 3,550 more than last year... 

Mule deer fawns survival rate below average after cruel winter May 19, 2020 Idaho, Rexburg Standard Journal
... The lingering snowpack during March and April took its toll on Eastern Idaho mule deer with below-average survival rates of fawns...  up to 40 and 50 percent were lost...“It will not be like the winter of 2016-17, but we will be below the long-term average,” ...

Chronic wasting disease detected in Gallatin County deer May 19, 2020 Montana, Billings Gazette
... The deer was euthanized earlier this month in the Springhill area of north Bozeman after displaying several classic symptoms of the disease.  This case is the first detection of CWD in Gallatin County ...

...  included illegal take of buck deer, bull elk, black bear, bobcat and cougar ... Police received a tip through the Turn In Poachers (TIP) Line ...

DNR willing to let eastern Minnesota elk plan move forward May 17, 2020 Duluth News Tribune
... in a recent letter to Fond du Lac tribal officials, said the DNR “is prepared to discuss the next steps’’ of a potential elk reintroduction... The effort needs backing from local and state political leaders. There’s also the matter of finding millions of dollars to pay for elk relocation from other states ...

... ODA investigators found a doe with CWD in a herd on the farm ... CDW has never been found in Ohio’s wild deer herd population, according to ODA...

Zookeepers Fawning Over New SF Teaching Zoo Key Deer Arrival May 15, 2020 Florida, Santa Fe College
...  USFWS called zoo staff when they found an orphaned Key deer fawn on Key Deer Wildlife Refuge. From that point, dedicated individuals from multiple organizations and agencies worked together to give the little fawn round the clock care and bring him safely to Gainesville...

... The statewide deer bag limit remains at six deer, only one of which may be antlered, and a hunter cannot exceed a county bag limit...

... The game wardens in rural northeast Washington have seen an explosion of problem cougar/human encounters. One officer told us that over the last few years his time spent dealing with cougar calls went from around 3-6% a few years ago up to around 25-30% last year! ... 

In Colorado, Wolves Are on the Ballot May 14, 2020 Sierra Magazine
... Initiative 107, a November ballot measure to reintroduce gray wolves west of the Continental Divide... It will be the first time that the reintroduction of wolves anywhere in the United States is decided by popular vote... Today, the International Wolf Center estimates that there are 5,500 gray wolves in the continental United States...

Hoof disease found in nearby elk herds May 13, 2020 Oregon, Ashland Tidings
... Southwest Oregon Roosevelt elk herds are virtually surrounded by new discoveries of a debilitating disease that rots the animals’ hooves ... known scientifically as treponeme-associated hoof disease, or TAHD ...

... Members of the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission decided to vote down a previously passed amendment banning the sale of untested deer urine products ... Regulations remained intact however making it unlawful for hunters to use or possess those scents or lures ...

Mule Deer Survey Numbers Up May 11, 2020 North Dakota, Wahpeton Daily News
... results indicate western North Dakota’s mule deer population is up 7% from last year and 22% above the long-term average.  Biologists counted 2,364 mule deer in 267.3 square miles during this year’s survey. Overall mule deer density in the badlands was 8.8 deer per square mile...

... After challenging the animals with CWD prions intraperitoneally, we found that all vaccinated groups had longer survival times than the CpG control group. Interestingly, the Mmo-immunized group revealed that survival was extended by 60%. We also observed 28.4% and 24.1% prolongation in Dmo and Ddi groups, respectively. Our preliminary study in reindeer showed substantial humoral immune response induced by Mdi and Ddi, and the sera from the Ddi-vaccinated reindeer significantly reduced CWD prions in a cell culture model. Taken together, this study describes potential vaccine candidates against CWD...

Florida Key Deer Abundance and Recovery Following New World Screwworm Infestation  ID Parker, RR Lopez, NJ Silvy, BL Pierce, KG Watts… - Southeastern Naturalist, 2020
... We documented 135 Screwworm-related Florida Key Deer mortalities (∼9–20% of the total population) during the Screwworm outbreak (July 2016–January 2017). Most mortalities occurred in the adult male population, as Screwworm flies laid eggs on open wounds sustained from sparring during mating season...

... Chief of Wildlife Bill Dinkines told Commissioners antlerless harvest as a percentage of total deer harvest has decreased from 42 percent in 2014 to 36 percent in 2018... To promote antlerless deer harvest, a public information campaign will begin...

CPW targets chronic wasting disease with more testing May 9, 2020 Colorado, Montrose Daily Press
... As of February 2020, CWD has been detected in 33 of 54 deer herds, 14 of 43 elk herds, and two of nine moose herds...  in 2019, 16 deer herds were included in mandatory testing, More than 7,700 samples tested statewide for all cervid species, CWD prevalence exceeds the 5% management threshold in 18 deer herds ..,

11% of Powder River mule deer test positive for CWD May 9, 2020 Montana, Billings Gazette
... Results are in from the first in-depth look at chronic wasting disease prevalence levels in the Powder River Mule Deer Herd ... “This prevalence rate is higher than expected but still well below rates found in southeast Wyoming where the disease has been present for many more years,” ...

... As the treatment started to age, we saw that their use of these treated areas declined. We know they constantly preferred to be closer to water sources ... the deer tended to be a little bit closer to developed areas...

Forest Service needs to draw the line on Berlaimont May 7, 2020 Colorado, Vail Daily News
... The Berlaimont parcel, north of I-70 in Edwards, is one of the last major migration corridors for deer and elk in our region, and sits right in the middle of critical winter range, as designated by the Forest Service’s own Forest Management Plan...

City folk: Ready, aim May 7, 2020 Nebraska City News Press
... unanimously approved a resolution to establish an urban deer management zone in the city. That allows for a controlled hunt ...

Elk Hoof Disease Detected in Del Norte County Herd, May 7, 2020 California, CDFW News
... The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has detected the state’s first cases of a potentially crippling hoof disease in two Roosevelt elk from a resident herd in Del Norte County.  Treponeme-associated hoof disease (TAHD) – commonly referred to as “elk hoof disease” – can cause deformed, overgrown and otherwise damaged hooves. The lesions and resulting deformities are painful and lead to limping, lameness and even death as observed in other states...

Draft Cripple Creek Deer Management Plan May, 2020 Colorado, CPW Report
..Like much of Colorado, the Cripple Creek (D-16) deer herd reached peak population levels in the 1960s and 1970s before declining through the 1980s and 1990s. It is estimated this population peaked in the 1960s at approximately 27,000; however, that estimate included GMUs 59 and 591, which are no longer considered part of this population. In the decades since, the population and associated harvest have declined by approximately 50%...

... More than twice as many people opposed extending the season and moving the start up to the middle of November rather than the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  With declining sales of hunting licenses, the Natural Resources Board had suggested lengthening the season might increase “excitement and participation” ...

New breakthrough may help cure prion disease May 6, 2020 Massachusetts, News Medical
... fatal diseases caused by prions - chronic wasting disease in deer ... if you catch it early enough, if you pull out one side of the square, the amyloid structure can't double. Chaperones prevent the disease by preventing it from doubling in that first round... In a new paper in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology by Tricia Serio ...

MDC Reports Final CWD Results for 2019-20 Season May 6, 2020 Missouri Department of Conservation
...  MDC reports it has confirmed 46 new cases of the deadly deer disease.  These new findings bring the total number of CWD cases in the state to 162. MDC has tested more than 137,000 deer since the first cases of CWD were found in free-ranging deer in Missouri in 2012..,

... .Schnepp-Giger asked staff to prepare a report on the biological implications of removing antler restrictions in any wildlife management unit that is associated with chronic wasting disease management areas ... Starting in 2011, the four-point area changed to three points to an antler ...

... .Schnepp-Giger asked staff to prepare a report on the biological implications of removing antler restrictions in any wildlife management unit that is associated with chronic wasting disease management areas ... Starting in 2011, the four-point area changed to three points to an antler ...

... Pronghorn and mule deer populations have been trending in the wrong direction, plummeting by as much as 40% in certain herds because of habitat loss and fragmentation ... two identified migration corridors—for the Sublette pronghorn and Wyoming Range mule deer herds—are up for potential designation by the state...

Evaluating the Use of Drones Equipped with Thermal Sensors as an Effective Method for Estimating Wildlife  JT Beaver, RW Baldwin, M Messinger, CH Newbolt… - Wildlife Society Bulletin, 2020
... The method provides the ability to perform accurate and reliable population surveys in a safe and cost‐effective manner compared with traditional aerial surveys and is only expected to continue to improve as sensor technology and machine learning analytics continue to advance. Furthermore, the precise replicability of autonomous flights at future dates results in methodology with superior spatial precision that increases statistical power to detect population trends across surveys...

... State wildlife officials want to increase the antlerless harvest for better deer herd management. Does or antlerless deer represent only 36% of the total deer harvest during hunting seasons, down 5 to 6% from 2014...

Montana begins rewrite of elk management plan May 4, 2020 Helena Independent Record
... Montana last updated its elk management plan in 2005 ...  ... Individuals interested in serving on the committee must be willing to commit to two multi-day meetings during the summer of 2020... Populations in some parts of Montana grew well above objectives in recent years  ...

Wyoming Acquires Another Large Piece Of Public Land May 4, 2020 Wyoming Public Media
... A 4,350-acre parcel of land on the Wyoming-South Dakota border ... will protect critical winter range for elk, whitetail and mule deer ...

Vermont holds online public meetings on deer May 3, 2020 Washington Times
... “The winter of 2020 was relatively easy for deer throughout Vermont ... lingering effects of the more severe winter of 2019 will result in minimal population growth in most areas... deer populations in several wildlife management units (WMUs) will continue to be above established population objectives and we are increasingly concerned about declining physical condition of deer in many areas.” ..,

... a new state plan to let hunters kill up to 15% a year across western Colorado ... basing their plan on a statewide estimate of 4,000 to 5,500 lions today ...  Sierra Club’s ... estimate of the statewide population would be 3,000 ..,

... Game and Fish is proposing to offer 69,050 deer gun licenses this fall, an increase of about 3,500 from last year... the fifth consecutive year of increased deer gun licenses ... we feel good about that vs. the curve from 2010 through 2015, which was a straight downward curve,” Williams said. “We feel good about the opportunities that have been out there for the deer hunting public.” ..,





Searching the internet to find and conserve deer information.  

Deer in the News

Trapped Fawn Saved By Westlake Police May 26, 2020 Ohio, Patch
... found the fawn wedged between fences. The fawn's mother was stomping nearby ...The officer had to get a breaching tool to free the fawn ...

... Starting at birth, a fawn is left alone throughout most of the day while its mother is off feeding. The mother deer does this to reduce the chance of attracting a predator to the fawn... “Don’t be a fawn kidnapper,” ...

Over the years, many Deer generations have been passing through and sometimes staying on my property. - May 23, 2020


... once the doe was killed it gave birth to three fawns ... taken to the Wildlife Rehabilitation and Release in Colfax  ...

VDGIF reminding everyone to leave fawns alone May 22, 2018 Virginia, NBC29
... Fawns, born from May through July, are purposely left alone ... does stay away from the fawns to avoid leading predators such as dogs or coyotes to their location. The whitespotted coat camouflages a fawn as it lies motionless in vegetation...

...  kayaking the river near M-47 and State Street when she saw the baby animal drowning...

Fawn rescued from a groundhog hole May 20, 2020 New Jersey, RecordOnline.com
... he could hear something crying ... After spotting a groundhog hole, Tillou quickly dropped to the ground and placed his ear into the hole where he could hear a faint crying sound.  It was the fawn... trapped five feet below ground...

... Officers said with a little creativity and a few pallets they were able to rescue the deer ... department’s Facebook page ...

... most of these fawns are not abandoned ... In nature, the mother deer gives birth and for the next five to seven days, the fawn is incapable of following the mother, so it is natural for the fawn to lie in a curled ‘freeze’ position on the ground hidden in grass or sparse brush ...

... A Pennsylvania teen will avoid prison over a viral video that shows him and another juvenile beating and torturing a wounded deer...

Fawns are arriving; Leave them alone, urges F&W May 11, 2020 Vermont, VTDigger
... best to keep your distance because the fawn’s mother is almost always nearby... Fawns do not attempt to evade predators during their first few weeks, instead relying on camouflage and stillness to remain undetected... Deer nurse their young at different times during the day ...

Police, public works employees rescue deer from soccer net May 8, 2020 Wisconsin, UPI.com
... The City of Niagara said in a Facebook post that Police Chief Angie Moreau and Officer Heather Romback encountered the deer stuck in a soccer net at Heights Park ...

Deer is rescued from Hudson River May 7, 2020 New Jersey, NJ.com
...  a deer had been caught near a drainage pipe ... “The deer first had to be set free before our team could snare the animal and take it back to land,"  ... bringing the deer to a wooded area in Weehawken, where it was released ...

This is not the first time I've seen a deer swim in the ocean. The last time was about 5 years ago during a snowy Nor'easter. There was 10-15 foot shore break, and a deer wandered into that surf with no fear. Its head disappeared underneath the crashing waves and I was certain I just watched that deer kill itself. 20 minutes later, though, this deer walked out of the surf unscathed. They might be doing it to clean themselves, maybe to remove ticks. They certainly swim well. The hair all over their body is hollow, making them very buoyant. It was easy for this deer to keep its head above the water as it kicked along. The boat it nearly reached was a commercial shellfish dragger. They were might've been 1,000 feet from shore. - April 6, 2020


... A target arrow was removed from the neck of a black-tailed doe after it was tranquilized by wildlife biologists... We popped the arrow out and the deer strolled away 15 minutes later...

A deer that got onto the lower level of the GWB ended up below in a rocky, fenced-in area before being rescued and taken to nearby Palisades Interstate Park. - May 4, 2020, New York


... the rare deer didn’t show any sign of fear. They approached him with interest and at one point they came within about 10 feet of him...


In this video, Mississippi locals Jeremy Shook and his friends Ray Freeman and Heath Beal have encountered a baby deer stuck in between a metal fence in his property.They all helped rescue the baby deer. - April 17, 2020


... Deer antlers are very unusual; they are the only organ found in mammals that regenerates. The cells that antlers are made of can proliferate rapidly ...This kind of rapid growth is also seen in cancer... It seems that deer are able to keep cancer from developing because of other genes ...

Deer herd roams through Grand Rapids street  April 5, 2020 Michigan, WOOD-TV
... Deer replaced cars on the streets of one Grand Rapids neighborhood this past week...

... shows that Interstate 80 is an almost impenetrable obstacle to movement of pronghorn, mule deer and elk. The highway has severed or truncated migration corridors originating as much as 150 miles away...

Mule Deer Swimming Across Mormon Reservoir in Camas County, Idaho in April 2020


Watch this incredible deer rescue video! I was driving outside of Whitefish, Montana alongside a frozen lake when I suddenly noticed a whitetail deer that had fallen through the ice and was struggling to survive. The fire department was called, and they sent out a brave firefighter to out on the ice to try to rescue the deer. This was an incredibly risky move since the ice was already thin enough for the deer to fall through, and the deer likely weighed less. The weight of both of them together could be disastrous - Montana, April 6, 2020


... A piebald deer has patches of white on its body ... about 2 percent of deer are piebald... One woman described the deer as “our baby we have watched in our backyard for two years.” ...

Mule Deer Migration: One Woman Follows in Its Footsteps March 26, 2020 Wyoming, GearJunkie
... The film opens with one researcher’s mission to track tagged doe No. 139.  The lead researcher, Sam Dwinnell, decides her team will trace the doe’s 6-week, 85-mile migration in just 9 days... [link to video]

... Santa Rosa Ranch was originally a hunting preserve ... Now, the preserve is home to over 2000 fallow and axis deer, all descendants of those from the hunting days ... with 540-acres of farm and animal agriculture...

Blind Deer, Seen ‘odd’ acting deer with strange eyes? It’s not your imagination, experts say March 5, 2020 Alabama, Raleigh News & Observer
... a 5-year-old buck with discolored eyes, and experts later determined it was living totally blind in the wild ... It had been stabbed in the eyeball by another buck’s antlers ...

 Duluth firefighters rescue deer from icy Lester River February 28, 2020, Minnesota, Duluth News Tribune
... "I've never seen an animal that wanted to be helped as much as this deer did," firefighter Mike Chad said. "When I got down on the ice, it had a look in its eye like, 'Help me.'" ... firefighters used a chemically activated heat blanket to warm the shivering deer...

Why do some bucks keep their velvet? February 19, 2020 Pennsylvania, Penn Live
... A birth defect known as cryptorchidism leads to lower than normal production of testosterone, the failure of one or both testicles to descend from the abdominal cavity into the scrotum ...