Anderson Mesa Deer Research
Today, I visited my local taxidermist, TR Taxidermy in Flagstaff, to pick up my latest mule deer mount. TR was pouring cement for lunch (not to eat, you silly), so I had to wait for over an hour. An elderly gentleman pulled up next to me and we started to talk.
He was retired, but had worked for the Arizona Game and Fish doing Mule Deer and Antelope research in North-Central Arizona. He studied the effect of coyotes on fawns and the effects of clear-cutting on herd size. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that, in their study, clear-cutting increased the number of mule deer and that killing coyotes increased the number of fawns.
The biggest coyote herd he reported seeing numbered ‘eight of them devils”. He said that they finally obtained permission to kill coyotes from an airplane, and that after they did that, the number of fawns increased dramatically. He was discouraged with “modern” wildlife management and with forest management, as well. He said that the Forest Service just wants a to have a giant tinderbox so they can fight fires, and that nobody seems to know how to manage natural resources anymore.
When I compare the old school with the new, I get discouraged too. How about you?
