Mule Deer Fanatic

Well, of course they do. Bears will eat about anything, and deer are tasty. Humans are nasty and stinky. If bears are willing to attack people, so much more a deer.

This just in: Did you hear about the 11 year old kid that was killed by a bear up American Fork Canyon Sunday night? It drug him out of his tent in the middle of the night. Someone else was attacked Saturday night in the same camping spot. After the boy was killed, they tracked down the bear and made it a good bear.

A friend of mine, from Northern Utah, just sent me this email. I happen to know of a similar story which occurred, a few years previous, near Soldier Summit, Utah – not far from the above incident, where a girl was dragged from a camper by a bear that was a Yellowstone transplant. When bears in Yellowstone cause too much trouble they can apparently be transported to other locales – where they may be expected to cause more trouble.

Several years ago, Idaho did a study, in the lower pan-handle region, to learn the cause of excessive elk calf mortality. To the amazement of the researchers, many calves were being killed by black bears. By the way, black bears are extremely fast when they want to be. I have witnessed this up close and personal. They can, reportedly, out run a quarter horse. I have also seen a video, filmed in Yellowstone’s Hayden Valley, where a grizzly bear overtook a healthy calf elk and killed it. The elk had about a 100 yard head start. That grizzly bear moved like greased lighting, and only a few seconds earlier it had been lumbering around like a bear while the elk watched.

Bears are opportunists. They will kill to eat as illustrated by the above stories. If a bear is hungry ( or even if it is not ) and a deer is close enough to be attacked – what do you think will happen? Bears, I am told, start with the guts. The nastier the better. A bear, unlike a mountain lion, will eat carrion. This means: they keep eating until it is gone – even if their meal gets quite ripe. So, it is not too likely that you will ever discover bear-killed deer just lying around. If you discover a recently killed deer with the guts eaten – beware. Don’t be deceived into believing bears do not kill deer.

In much of mule deer habitat, thank goodness, there are no bears. Where there are bears, they will be killing and eating mule deer. Even if this were not so, in my experience, bears definitely displace deer and cause them stress. From what I have seen, deer go bonkers when they smell a bear.

There are numerous bears within 5 miles of my home. I do what I can to help my local mule deer herd, but the fawn/doe ratio is poor. The herd just can’t seem to grow. Between the bears, coyotes, and lions – what chance have they? Do your part – kill a bear, legally, of course. Don’t stop there. Work on the lions and coyotes as well. This will show that you are a true Mule Deer Fanatic.

The Arizona Game and Fish says, “we don’t need money”, nevertheless there seems to be an effort to recruit more deer hunters. Never mind the fact that there are not any “extra” deer for the additional hunters. There aren’t enough deer for the existing hunters (whose numbers are far fewer than that of 20 years ago), much less for new hunters.

When asked the question, “which would you rather have quality or quantity?” many hunters today choose quality – although this should be an unneccesary decision. It’s as if we must have only one or the other, but not both. Mule deer hunters of today are easily deceived by the apparent paradox. We can have our cake and eat it too, but game managers must be willing to make the decision to drastically reduce predators as a prerequisite to abundant deer herds. We can have abundance.

If the Arizonana GnF were to choose abundance, not only could mule deer hunters experience both quantity and quality, but there would be much less difficulty retaining and recruiting hunters. Moreover, the need for more revenue, though cited as unneccesarry, could be dealt with in a productive manner.

For whatever reason, the abundance concept is foreign to game managers. They would rather wallow in the mire of scarcity. So, one might ask, are the recruitment programs a hoax? Or, they really about money? And, what about the money that is being spent on such programs? Wouldn’t the money be better spent on creating abundance. If I had $1000 to spend, would I not be better off spending it to kill predators, or to develop a water source, than to spend it on advertising to recruit young hunters? If the father of a youth gives up on hunting because of repeated poor quantity and quality, then how is his son or daughter supposed to become interested?

The North Kaibab, in Arizona, should have ten times the mule deer that it presently has. When I hunted there last year, I crossed five different sets of lion tracks. I saw and heard coyotes every day. Mule deer were extremely scarce, a sad story for an area with so much potential. Given the situation, the GnF has no business killing does, protecting predators, nor increasing permits, much less recuiting more hunters – and yet they do all these. I am particularly annoyed by the fact that the East Kaibab early hunt permits have been increased by 900 permits for 2007. And yet it is said, “we don’t need the money”.

Coyotes and Mule Deer

Last week, while visiting with my neighbor, our discussion turned to mule deer. I asked him if he had seen many deer on his property. He said he had an interesting experience with mule deer right next to his house, and related the following story:

My wife and I were busy inside the house when she told me she could hear a woman screaming outside. She insisted that I go outside and see what was happening. I went out the front door, and to my amazement, there were two coyotes attacking a doe and her two fawns. One coyote had a hold on the doe by a front leg – the other was in the process of killing the two fawns. I ran into the house to get my gun. When I returned to the scene, I fired a shot at one of the coyotes. I missed the shot, and the coyotes ran away. Both fawns were already dead, and I seriosly doubt that the doe survived the attack even though she was still alive when the coyotes fled. The doe moved away when I went up to look at the fawns, but she was seriouly wounded. Since the fawns were dead, there was nothing more I could do. Less than three hours later, the fawns had been dragged some distance away and mostly eaten, presumably by the same coyotes that had killed them.

I find this story interesting for several reasons. The first is that two coyotes can prey upon and kill a healthy doe and two fawns. The second is that these deer, it would seem, would rather deal with people than with coyotes – even though their proximity to humans did not save their lives in this situation. The third is that, even after being shot at, these coyotes returned in a short period of time to finish the job they had started.

In my lifetime I have met numerous people who believe that coyotes either kill only the weak, or that they don’t kill many deer – period. I don’t believe either. Instead, I believe that the single largest factor in fawn mortality is predation by coyotes. When fawn/doe ratios are low you can bet that there are way too many coyotes. I also believe that coyotes, lions, and bears kill healthy deer on a regular basis, and indeed, prefer healthy ones over the sickly.

Coyotes, lions, and bears are far more abundant than at any other time in my 55 years on this planet. Correspondingly, mule deer numbers are at their lowest. It is not a coincidence that deer numbers are so low. Each and every hunter who values mule deer should take it upon himself to kill as many coyotes as he possibly can.

If you wish to hunt Muley bucks in Canada, and want to cross the border with your firearm – here is a site to visit for information:

Canada Firearms Centre

I have heard of blue tongue disease outbreaks in central Utah. I have always believed this disease to be drought-related because mule deer seem to contract the disease when drinking from stagnant ponds when no fresh water is available. It appears the disease is spread by no-see-um gnats which may be more prevalent in stagnant ponds on drought years.

Here is an article from Wyoming that sheds more light on this disease which is fatal to deer.

HEMORRHAGIC DISEASE CLAIMED DEER DURING AUGUST IN NORTHEAST WYOMING

9/29/2006

SHERIDAN – Hemorrhagic disease has killed a number of deer in the Sheridan area this summer, but the Wyoming Game and Fish Department believes the disease has run its course and does not anticipate this should cause any concern for hunters this fall.

-WGFD-

Successful archery deer hunters must report harvest
By Tom Cadden, public information officer, Arizona Game and Fish Department
All archery deer hunters are reminded of a rule that went into effect in 2004. Successful archery deer hunters must contact an Arizona Game and Fish Department office in person or by telephone at 1-866-903-DEER (3337) within 10 days of taking a deer unless the deer has been checked through a mandatory hunter checking station.

Department analysis indicates that only about 35 percent of the successful archers complied with this requirement last year. The archery report-in process was put in place to gather data on archery harvest rather than go to a full draw system for archery deer hunts. Please report your harvest to help us collect this important data.  If you fail to comply with this rule, you could be cited by the department.

The deadline to submit applications for fall 2007 deer hunts is Tuesday, June 12, 2007 at 7 p.m. (MST). The new 2007-2008 Arizona Hunting and Trapping Regulations with drawing information for deer, is available for download from the link below.

2007-2008 Arizona Hunting and Trapping Regulations [ PDF, 8.85mb ]

To apply online for Idaho Mule Deer Controlled Hunt

Click here

As of: April 27, 2007