Wisconsin DNR forcing invasive medical procedures on whitetail deer!
Oh, relax. The DNR’s just trying to track deer to study why/when/how frequently they died.
We take hunting season pretty seriously here in Wisconsin, which means we take the deer herd pretty seriously. So I’m not opining on whether or not this is a good idea; whether it’s a reasonable use of taxpayer dollars; whether it will or will not tell us anything useful.
Interesting? Sure, I’ll bet we find out some interesting stuff. Useful? Well, we’ll see.
I just thought it was an interesting story:
The DNR captured the 339 deer last year using box traps, netted cage traps, drop nets and helicopter net guns. Many of the deer were fitted with radio collars that allow the DNR to track them and record information when a deer is killed.
The program captured 151 adult females (54 in the east-central area), 50 bucks (22 in the east-central area) and 138 yearling (59 in east-central area). Eighty-six adult females (46 in the east-central area), 48 bucks (20 in the east-central area) and 78 fawns (48 in the east-central area) were fitted with radio collars.
Of the 46 adult females captured in the east-central region, 43 were pregnant. Pregnancy could not be confirmed in the remaining three deer because ultrasound equipment malfunctioned.
Invasive! They’re stealing those deer’s mommy parts!
In the spring the DNR caught 104 fawns (36 in east-central area) born to adult females tagged in the capturing season.
As of December, 106 of the adult and yearlings fitted with collars had died. Hunters were responsible for 61 percent of the deaths in the east-central area and 38 percent of those in the northern area. Vehicle collisions claimed the second highest number of deer, 24 percent, in the east-central area, while predators ranked No. 2, 26 percent, in the northern area.
Forty fawns also had died by that time, including 18, or 38 percent, of those collared, in the east-central region. Predation was blamed for 33 percent of the deaths, compared to 64 percent in northern area; starvation also claimed 33 percent of the fawns in the east-central area.
As expected, the study found more predation in the northern area.
I may or may not follow up on this story. Mostly it’ll depend on whether I notice any further reporting on it.
Like this:
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How frequently they died? I thought that deer, like most animals, only died once…
Well maybe this study will prove that once and for all.
This much like the CWD scare tactics, are all a waste of money, they say we have xyz amount of deer in WI and I can tell you from driving in Racine and Kenosha Counties, add in our bow season was from Sept 15th through Jan 30 I was out in the woods most of my off time, the deer population is down, period, either that or they have really stepped up their game and are not coming out during the day while hunters are in the woods.
Don’t listen to the BS about “they hear you coming” doubtful, I scare more than a few people cause they don’t hear me coming, and that’s with heels, I doubt I make much noise walking my Indian walk (ball of foot to rear of foot, think ballet steps and you’ll get it) I didn’t see hardly any deer in our hunting areas, and we didn’t have many pictures on deer camera’s either, more proof that the DNR is full of something.
We USED to have at least 2 or 3 pictures per night of deer, and different deer, not just the locals, believe me we can tell the difference, and have named most the deer we have on our properties. This year we were lucky to have 3-4 pictures at night over a month period of time, with deer in them, lots of coyotes (hmmm maybe these could be the problem, not according to the dnr) raccoon’s, and most any other critter.