Utah Black Bears doing Well – Mule Deer NOT
Utah Bear Management – Good for bears, Bad for Mule Deer.
Utah Bear Management Plan (excerpt)
Bear management in Utah is guided by the state’s Black Bear Management Plan. The three major goals of the plan—keep the percentage of female bears taken by hunters below 40 percent; keep the average age of bears taken by hunters above 5 years old; and keep the adult survival rate above 78 percent—were all met in 2007.
When these goals are met we know that Utah Bears are healthy.
are mule deer populations actually down? i see all the beautiful trophy photos from local folks;outfitters mostly except a few live bucks in closed areas. truly, if it is down there are a number of factors to consider…common sense; habitat loss, poor management on the fish and game as far as not developing better food resources for wintering deer, predators not only with cat but with bruins, coyote, wolves…oh dear i said that w word; can we say denial. what about all the deer getting smucked by vehicles….heaven forbid someone actually looks instead of texting…and of course poaching. im from montana and the fish game dept closed down certain areas for 3 yrs, encouraged the farmers to plant more deer freindly food and increased the quota on bruins and lion; it did help considerably but it really takes all of us to manage deer….like passing on big stout bucks on occasion and harvesting smaller ones. of course i dont have an answer;to many variables. i know i never want to see hunting end and im huge on spot and stalk on wolves…..no, i wish; i actually used to hunt bears. i still dream of a non typical hanging on my wall and a freezer with tasty deer sausage in it….am i only having pipe dreams;lets hope not. lets all do what we can for gods mule deer, after all we are their keepers. sign me off as balance is essential to all survival.
There are many factors to be sure. In many states, there are more mule deer being hit by cars than are being harvested by hunters. We cannot say hunting is the problem because, nation wide there are less than half the hunters there were as recently as the 1980’s. Predation is by far the most significant single factor and also the most controllable. Black bears in South Eastern Utah, are taking over, and they do eat deer and displace deer. Mule deer in Utah are about 1/3 the population of the peak in 1988, while black bear populations have likely increased 10-fold in the same time period.