Mule Deer Fanatic

Old news, but the hard winter has hit Idaho too:

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The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has closed the 33,500-acre Boise River Wildlife Management Area east of Boise to help mule deer survive the winter. The high snowfall this winter has forced deer into lower elevations, and Ed Bottum, manager of the area, said humans disturbing deer can cause them to use up energy they need to survive until spring.

“Their strategy is to minimize the amount of energy they use so their body reserves will last as long as possible,” Bottum told the Idaho Statesman. “It’s kind of a race to see if their body fat will last until spring greens up.”

Bottum said that not disturbing the deer on the management area means they will be more likely to stay there, where they won’t be hit by vehicles, chased by dogs, or eat shrubs near homes.

Fish and Game tries to track the health of deer herds in the state by placing radio collars on some animals. It currently has collars on 850 deer. On average, Fish and Game officials say, about 85 to 90 percent of does survive. Usually, about 50 percent of fawns survive, though that can drop to 20 percent during tough winters and rise to 80 percent during mild ones.

Fawns usually start dying in late February, officials said, and those deaths are tracked throughout the winter.

So far, Fish and Game has not started emergency winter feeding in southwest Idaho, though that is being done in some other parts of the state.

Summer and fall forage conditions also influence deer survival during the winter, said Brad Compton, Fish and Game big-game manager.

He said a mild, wet fall allowed deer to find more food, and that big snowstorms didn’t start in southern Idaho until the middle of December. He also said temperatures have not been unusually cold.

If deer can survive the winter snow, he said, the additional moisture this spring will mean they’ll likely have plenty of food.

“There’s a strong correlation between deer populations and precipitation,” Compton said. “We may take a hit this winter, but in the long term, we end up with healthier, more productive deer populations.”

Reporter: Tammy Scardino
Estimates in Favor of Mule Deer’s Survival in Southeast Idaho

Posted:
Dec 24, 2007 04:38 PM MST

A team effort has been launched statewide to reduce road mortality of big game animals in Idaho. Data is also being collected to specifically track mule deer populations.

Once a group of Mule Deer are spotted, they’re herded down the hill by helicopter to be met by nets and humans. Doesn’t look like much fun for the deer, but in the long run the tagged ones will provide crucial data for researchers to analyze.

Mark Hurley, Senior Research Biologist: “This is a part of our new Mule Deer Monitoring Program and it includes state wide surveys and state wide estimates of survival.”

Once on the ground, the deer are blind-folded, tagged and a radio collar is placed around their neck. Survival rates will be monitored based on these marked fawns discovered at Blackrock Canyon.

Mark Hurley, Senior Research Biologist: “Mule deer populations are fairly cyclic. Ya know, we need constant and annual estimates of survival in this data we collect so we can understand population cycles.”

Meanwhile, Fish and Game officials in the Mink Creek area are doing quite the opposite, looking for packs of Mule Deer only to scare them away from the roadway by shooting fireworks at them. It’s already being estimated to be a good year for Mule Deer in Idaho. The winter feeding program has not had to be implemented, meaning the deer are doing just fine on their own this year thanks to a mild winter.

Mark Gamblin, Fish and Game Regional Supervisor: “Certainly there is a cost savings for the sportsman for us to not have to spend a lot of money on winter feed, but that isn’t a consideration for whether or not we do feed.”

Remember, deer and other big game animals tend to cross roads at night time and are not as active during the day in order to save up their fat reserves.

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Associated Press – December 25, 2007 3:04 PM ET

POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) – Idaho Fish and Game officials near Pocatello are shooting fireworks at mule deer as part of an effort to keep them away from roads where they can be struck by automobiles.

One reason why there could be more deer on the roadways is, biologists are expecting another very good year for mule deer in the state’s southeast.

They’re currently in the midst of documenting mule-deer survival rates this year, an effort that includes chasing down the animals in a helicopter, netting them, then outfitting some with radio collars.

The big reason mule deer are surviving is the mild winter so far in the region surrounding Pocatello.

Officials are optimistic a bumper crop of fawns and adult animals will make it into next spring.

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Wood River Valley

Berkley cautioned against jumping to conclusions too soon as to how well big game will survive this winter. She noted that the flights took place prior to the major winter storm that dumped large amounts of snow in the valley earlier this week.

Regardless, Berkley said the findings are encouraging. She said that in general, the numbers seem on par with the last count the Fish and Game conducted in the same area in 2004.

Berkley said one surprise that came out of the flights was the number of mule deer that are wintering in the valley. She said deer usually head farther south, outside of the valley, during the winter to escape the deeper snows.

“We saw a lot of deer on our flight as far north as Quigley (Canyon),” she said.

Idaho has published a Mule Deer Management plan that will be in force for the next decade. If you want your voice to be heard, here is the link: COMMENTS.

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My comments to Idaho: “None of Idaho’s units have anywhere near the mule deer they should have. Every single one of the units should be marked “increase”. Overall, mule deer numbers are at about 1/3 of what they once were. That is pretty sad for a state with so much potential. Stop killing does and fawns until the REAL carrying capacity is reached.

I estimate that predators are killing 150,000 (or more) mule deer in Idaho each year. There is nothing more important to managing mule deer than predator control, and yet it is almost totally ignored. Why do you bury your heads in the sand about this issue when no other problem comes anywhere close in its severity? All the rest of your goals are fluff, and expensive fluff at that, if you do not address the predator problem.

Suppose I was in business having old customers that were leaving me, and that my products and service were so bad that I could not obtain any new customers. How do you think it would work if I then paid good money to recruit new customers while collecting that money from the old customers and while giving the old customers even less product/service? That is exactly what you are doing.”

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Some of my observations about the plan:

1) The plan will spend a lot of money and accomplish very little

2) Money will be spent to recruit new hunters (while old hunters have been severely restricted) instead of spending money to have more deer

3) In 12 goals, only one mentions predator control, and it is only short-term control at that.

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HERE ARE THE “GOALS”

Goal #1: Provide mule deer hunting opportunities that reflect the preferences and desires of hunters, including maintaining annual hunting opportunity and increasing opportunity for mature buck hunting experiences.

• Example Strategies:
• Maintain general hunting to allow annual hunting opportunity with family and friends.
• Provide additional mature buck hunting opportunity, equitably distributed throughout the state (e.g. some quality or trophy hunting available in each region).
• Provide for a balance of motorized and non-motorized hunting experiences.

Goal #2: Maintain healthy and productive mule deer populations proportionate to habitat capabilities.

• Example Strategies:
• Manage mule deer populations below carrying capacity to promote healthy populations, including optimal buck recruitment.
• Use antlerless harvest conservatively to achieve population goals.
• Monitor for, and manage against, disease.

Goal #3: Implement predator management actions when and where appropriate to aid in achieving management objectives.

• Example Strategies:
• Increase mountain lion harvest short-term following significant declines in mule deer populations.
• Continue to direct Animal Damage Control Board coyote removal efforts.

Goal #4: Encourage recruitment of new hunters and retention of existing hunters.

• Example Strategies:
• Continue providing either-sex opportunity for youth.
• Develop simple and easily understood hunting regulations.

Goal #5: Fully implement the Mule Deer Initiative Action Plan.

• Example Strategies:
• Continue devoting additional personnel and funding to accomplish on-the-ground projects to benefit mule deer.

Goal #6: Improve and protect habitat.

• Example Strategies:
• Improve or protect more than 50,000 acres of habitat annually.
• Increase Department involvement in landscape scale land-use planning.
• Promote livestock management practices that benefit mule deer habitat.

Goal #7: Evaluate a cost-effective and reliable habitat monitoring program.

• Example Strategies:
• Develop a management tool that can be used to improve habitat and population management efforts.

Goal #8: Reduce illegal harvest.

• Example Strategies:
• Increase targeted enforcement efforts, especially on mule deer winter ranges.
• Provide training and information to other law enforcement agencies to increase awareness of poaching and commercialization.
• Reduce illegal outfitting and guiding for mule deer.
• Promote citizen involvement in enforcement issues.

Goal #9: Improve population monitoring programs.

• Example Strategies:
• Monitor mule deer population size, body condition, age structure, fawn production and survival, adult survival, and buck:doe ratios annually.
• Develop short-term and long-term total population objectives for discrete mule deer populations.

Goal #10: Work with landowners and sportsmen to minimize and mitigate for depredations.

• Example Strategies:
• Increase the use of permanent solutions to address chronic depredation problems.
• Encourage use of youth, seniors, hunters with disabilities, and veterans for harvesting depredating deer.
• Distribute information to agricultural producers on how to minimize depredations.

Goal #11: Implement special investigations to improve population and habitat management capabilities.

• Example Strategies:
• Conduct an in-depth analysis of the impacts of varying season length and timing on buck survival.
• Determine long-term impacts of noxious weeds, fire, and habitat change on mule deer populations.

Goal #12: Provide information and improve public understanding of, and involvement in, mule deer management.

• Example Strategies:
• Increase distribution of mule deer information via newspaper articles, internet, public meetings, radio, television, direct mail, e-mail, and workshops.
• Distribute educational materials promoting the relationship between hunting and wildlife conservation in Idaho.
• Increase opportunities for public involvement including public meetings, internet, conservation organization meetings, and e-mail

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Draft Plan Population Goals

The state has been divided into 15 mule deer population management units (PMUs) consisting of one or more game management units. Population management units were based on seasonal movements of deer, habitat characteristics, and similar management priorities. Short-term population goals are likely to be met within one to three years simply through hunting season structure, assuming normal precipitation and snow conditions. Long-term population goals are designed to be achieved in three to 10 years and are dependent on implementing a number of management strategies within the plan, particularly habitat improvement projects.

This picture came to me via email. It is supposedly a buck that came out of Idaho’s unit 66.

From Idaho Outdoors

Idaho Unit Map

In many Idaho units the archery season for mule deer begins August 30.

Much of Idaho is undergoing fires, so be sure and check before you go.

This young gal is long on sincere and short on smarts. She wants to teach the wolves some manners and keep the mountain maggots in pens at night. We need more volunteers like her – a lot more.

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Can wolves and sheep coexist here?

IDFG considering whether to kill off Phantom Hill wolf pack

By JASON KAUFFMAN
Express Staff Writer ———————————–

Wood River Valley resident Cindi Hillemeyer scans the surrounding Smoky Mountains with a handheld radio telemetry receiver in attempt to locate the Phantom Hill wolf pack’s two radio collared wolves Monday evening. This summer, Hillemeyer has been working as a volunteer with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game tracking the movements of the pack in an attempt to keep them away from bands of sheep that are grazing federal grazing allotments. Photo by Jason Kauffman

Raising her handheld radio telemetry receiver above her head just before nightfall on Monday, Cindi Hillemeyer scanned the surrounding hills of the Smoky Mountains for a sign of the elusive Phantom Hill wolf pack.
A volunteer with Fish and Game, Hillemeyer has spent much of her summer tracking the movements of the wolf pack in an attempt to keep them away from grazing sheep. Along with her Fish and Game-issued radio telemetry receiver, she also carries a single-barrel shotgun along with non-lethal rubber bullets to scare wolves that may venture too close to sheep.Hillemeyer’s solitary task is a tall order, especially given the six-member wolf pack’s expansive home range roughly coincides with several federal sheep grazing allotments in the upper Wood River Valley. While at least one local sheep producer—Hailey-based Lava Lake Land and Livestock—elected to remove sheep from its grazing allotments earlier this summer after the pack was discovered, other grazers have chosen not to. One of those sheep ranchers—John Faulkner, of Gooding-based Faulkner Land and Livestock Co.—began to lose some of his sheep to wolf depredations on July 10 and 12. The sheep-killing incidents didn’t end there.Both Hillemeyer and Fish and Game’s large carnivore manager, Steve Nadeau, confirmed Monday that the wolf pack has continued to stay in close proximity to Faulkner’s bands and have been involved in repeated sheep killings. Such incidents are the reason Hillemeyer has spent numerous days and nights alone in the field monitoring the movements of the Phantom Hill wolves.

The killings are also why Nadeau is giving serious consideration to the pack’s continued existence. The option to kill off the pack was never out of the realm of possibility, he said Monday.

“It’s always been in the cards,” he said.

During an interview by telephone, Nadeau said a determination about whether agents with the U.S Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services would be called on to kill off the pack could happen soon. He said the decision—which is largely his to make—would be based in part on a detailed tally of Faulkner’s sheep that was to take place Monday evening in the Baker Creek area.

During Monday’s sheep count, lambs from the band were loaded onto out-of-state-bound trucks, while the adult ewes remained on-site and were joined by additional sheep.

Sheepherders looking after Faulkner’s sheep have reported continued losses throughout the past few weeks, Nadeau said.

“They continue to pluck away sheep,” he said.

What’s really needed, Hillemeyer said, is a stronger focus on instituting non-lethal methods to keep sheep and wolves separate. These can include putting sheep in protective electric-wire enclosures at night and placing more guard dogs with sheep bands—measures some sheep grazers have instituted with success, she said.

“I feel like that could shape a future for coexistence,” Hillemeyer said.

In response to a comment Nadeau made on Monday concerning the temporary nature of such non-lethal measures, she said the same can be said for killing off wolf packs without first trying to encourage them to stay away from sheep. Just as generations of wolves can learn bad habits like preying on sheep, so too can they learn to avoid sheep, she said.

By late afternoon Tuesday, information about whether the Phantom Hill pack was definitely marked for extermination was unavailable. Check the Idaho Mountain Express Web site at www.mtexpress.com for continued coverage of this ongoing issue.

As Reported by the Idaho Examiner:

     Reducing coyotes on mule deer fawning range and managing other predators is one component of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game’s Mule Deer Initiative. The initiative is a multi-faceted program aimed at increasing mule deer populations and public understanding of factors that influence mule deer populations across southern Idaho. The other five interconnected components of the initiative include: habitat, populations, communications, access and enforcement.

     “Research has demonstrated that focused coyote control during specific times of the year can improve mule deer fawn survival, especially when alternate prey – rabbits and mice – are low in abundance and deer populations are well below carrying capacity,” said Toby Boudreau, MDI coordinator for Fish and Game. Biologists are using radio-location data for mule deer from the Tex Creek Wildlife Management Area to determine where mule deer does have their fawns. This information is then used to focus coyote removal before and during the spring fawning season.

     “Coyote removal efforts are conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services from December 1 to July 1,” Boudreau said. This is the 10th year that Idaho Fish and Game has funded and directed Wildlife Services to control coyotes on mule deer fawning ranges. The goal of the program is to remove 75 percent of the coyotes from a given area in an attempt to improve fawn survival.

     Fish and Game provides $100,000 a year to Wildlife Services to supplement predator control efforts in Idaho. In exchange, Fish and Game determines where Wildlife Services should spend hunting license and tag revenues to benefit wildlife. Predator control geared to benefit mule deer is based on an annual evaluation of mule deer populations, alternate prey, and environmental conditions.

For more information, contact Idaho Fish and Game at 208-525-7290.

To apply online for Idaho Mule Deer Controlled Hunt

Click here