Winter kill

[daveytech]

Does anyone have any info on how hard the Idaho winter was on the animals? Was it as bad as some other states are reporting?

-Dave

 

[Shedhound]

My personal observations are that it was much harder than normal. I've come across quite a few dead fawns that didn't appear to be killed by predators. I know another guy who found 12 dead deer in one canyon while bear hunting this spring. I've seen 4 dead elk so far, 2 bulls, 2 cows. One was a really old cow killed by wolves, another calf killed by wolves, one bull was hard to tell and the other was easy because I spooked a wolf off the carcass. The sad thing here was that it was a bull that had already shed his antlers. In my opinion if a bull makes it through the long winter and survives through April, and sheds, he should be fine, I guess mot with wolves around, sad. This rough winter combined with an overharvest last fall makes me nervous about the quality of this fall's herds.

 

[CouesFanatic]

I agree. I have seen lots and lots of dead fawns. It's sad, last year wasn't near as bad. But considering last year was a mild winter, this winter should have more winter kill than last. I'm not too familiar with the average number of winter kill, but i'd say this winter was above average.