Wyoming Range Mule Deer Information

[Founder]

I had a few questions for Gary Fralick the other day about winter kill and ages of bucks found dead on the winter range. He sent me these items that he thought some here on the site might be interested in seeing.
I wish there was more information on the ages of bucks and does, rather than just from that one year.

Percentage of Fawns Lost During Winter

Bucks/Does Winter Mortality Ages

 

[highfastflyer]

I had a few questions for Gary Fralick the other day about winter kill and ages of bucks found dead on the winter range. He sent me these items that he thought some here on the site might be interested in seeing.
I wish there was more information on the ages of bucks and does, rather than just from that one year.

Percentage of Fawns Lost During Winter

The biologists gather their data from grid walks done with large public volunteer groups on established winter range die-off areas. They are always a fun walk to get out and participate. I have enjoyed a few of them over the years if the weather is good. These surveys do have big gaps and limitations as only a few set grids are walked each year then a “Modeling” accomplished.
The radio collar tracking gives us more precise data and with the bucks they have only recently started monitoring those as the lifeblood of the herds are the does/fawns. It wasn’t a good year in 2017 according to the radio collars. This from the 2017 Migration Initiative.

“Fawn Winter Survival
Winter conditions tend to have the greatest effect on survival of fawns, and this winter was no exception. We observed 100% mortality of the fawns we collared in summer 2016. Mortality rates of that caliber can have substantial repercussions on population dynamics because the majority of an entire cohort of deer is gone. Although these numbers are staggering, winter die-offs, as the one observed this winter, do occasionally occur and populations do eventually rebound. We have now found ourselves with a unique opportunity to evaluate how mule deer populations rebound from harsh winters.“

The blood bath on the Highways in past years during those bad winters has been horrific and particularly gruesome. Some good over/underpasses and fencing have been installed to try and stop that but still more work needs to be done. It really sucks when a big buck makes it to age 5, only to get broad sided on a cold winter night by an unprepared motorist barreling along at 70 mph. https://www.wyomingnews.com/rocketm...cle_aa6cdea5-19cc-5545-adb0-c1020ac35699.html

 

[SS!]

Thanks for sharing! Let’s hope for a good streak of mild winters to create a buffer zone from doom and gloom to acceptable while maintaining the current rate of buck harvest.

 

[Cooper]

I knew 2017 was bad, I just didn’t know how bad!! There was a lot of people who would look up snow totals and call it a designer winter due to snow totals but now they can see how it affected deer

 

[Bookhead]

I saw allot of fawns in the spring of 2018 not sure if they just had bad luck with the ones they collared or not. Did not see alot of dead deer when i was shed hunting either. Either way looks like there should be plenty of 5 year old deer this year

 

[Cooper]

I saw allot of fawns in the spring of 2018 not sure if they just had bad luck with the ones they collared or not. Did not see alot of dead deer when i was shed hunting either. Either way looks like there should be plenty of 5 year old deer this year

What area were you seeing all of the fawns that spring?

 

[highfastflyer]

I saw allot of fawns in the spring of 2018 not sure if they just had bad luck with the ones they collared or not. Did not see alot of dead deer when i was shed hunting either. Either way looks like there should be plenty of 5 year old deer this year

So your counts are more accurate than both Wyoming Migration Initiative radio collar 100% loss and Gary Fralick regional biologist 86% winter kill. Hmmmmm.......Maybe we should just save all those wasted millions of tax funded research and data collection and just consult you. We also are bursting at the seams with 5 yo bucks. Hmmmmmm........ Last season harvest season in both check stations and surveys clearly didn’t show that. I’ll have what you’re smoking MR. SENIOR BIOLOGIST. LMFAO.

 

[JB1975]

So your counts are more accurate than both Wyoming Migration Initiative radio collar 100% loss and Gary Fralick regional biologist 86% winter kill. Hmmmmm.......Maybe we should just save all those wasted millions of tax funded research and data collection and just consult you. We also are bursting at the seams with 5 yo bucks. Hmmmmmm........ Last season harvest season in both check stations and surveys clearly didn’t show that. I’ll have what you’re smoking MR. SENIOR BIOLOGIST. LMFAO.

The guy gave his opinion about what he saw in a specific area and made his judgement based on that. Nowhere in his quote did he say the entire unit or region. Stop being such a jackass on your posts. You act like you know everything on every subject related to Wyoming. Give it a rest.

 

[highfastflyer]

The guy gave his opinion about what he saw in a specific area and made his judgement based on that. Nowhere in his quote did he say the entire unit or region. Stop being such a jackass on your posts. You act like you know everything on every subject related to Wyoming. Give it a rest.

Defending MR. SENIOR BIOLOGIST leaves me to know who the jackasses are on this forum. Statements like

“Must have just had bad luck with the ones they collared,”

are all we need to know their full of shite, when 100% of those fawns died from a broad sample size. I certainly don’t admit to understanding complex Biological ecology but one thing I do know is those who associate and defend indefensible and nonsensical Biological claims, herd counts and buck projections that go against every known source of data don’t meet the Logic test. In Science we use research and data collection to back up our hypotheses and claims and not some MR. BIOLOGIST’s dreamt up weed farm biology. I suggest you associate yourself and defend those with sound Science based research and data not tabloid weed farm Biology.

 

[SS!]

I saw allot of fawns in the spring of 2018 not sure if they just had bad luck with the ones they collared or not. Did not see alot of dead deer when i was shed hunting either. Either way looks like there should be plenty of 5 year old deer this year

Maybe I'm reading the graph wrong (likely) but winter of 18 its showing high fawn survival. I assume the winter years end that spring so winter of 18 would be the dec of 17 and Jan-March of 18?

Does anyone know?

 

[JB1975]

Defending MR. SENIOR BIOLOGIST leaves me to know who the jackasses are on this forum. Statements like

“Must have just had bad luck with the ones they collared,”

are all we need to know their full of shite, when 100% of those fawns died. I certainly don’t admit to understanding complex Biological ecology but one thing I do know is those who associate and defend indefensible and nonsensical Biological claims, herd counts and buck projections that go against every known source of data don’t meet the Logic test. In Science we use research and data collection to back up our hypotheses and claims and not some MR. BIOLOGIST’s dreamt up weed farm biology. I suggest you associate yourself and defend those with sound Science based research and data not tabloid weed farm Biology.

Thanks for proving my point.

 

[highfastflyer]

Maybe I'm reading the graph wrong (likely) but winter of 18 its showing high fawn survival. I assume the winter years end that spring so winter of 18 would be the dec of 17 and Jan-March of 18?

Does anyone know?

Winter mortality counts are done in April and May so the 2018 case is winter of 2017 fall thru spring of 2018.

 

[SS!]

Winter mortality counts are done in April and May so the 2018 case is winter of 2017 fall thru spring of 2018.

So Bookhead is right. He didn't see many fawn deaths in spring 2018, just like the chart is showing.

Thank You.

 

[highfastflyer]

So Bookhead is right. He didn't see many fawn deaths in spring 2018, just like the chart is showing.

Thank You.

The 100% loss was the winter mortality year group they lost all the fawns. Here is the study labelled 2017-2018 update.

“Must have had bad luck with the ones they collared”

https://www.uwyo.edu/haub/_files/_docs/ruckelshaus/collaboration/2017-greys-river/2018-wyo-range-winter-update.pdf

 

[wytex]

According to Kevin's paper only 40 % loss was due to winter, the 60% is not known.
Overall survival through winter 2017/18 was 100% collared doe and 93% collared fawns.

 

[JakeSwensen]

Hey flyer, are you from California? I was in Wyoming and I'm 100% sure the winter that killed a lot of deer was 2016-17. I saw many dead fawns in the spring of 2017 while out antler hunting. Go have someone you trust read the study and explain it to you. Also your buffer zone idea will never happen and it wouldn't bring back the deer herd...

The 100% loss was the winter mortality year group they lost all the fawns. Here is the study labelled 2017-2018 update.

“Must have had bad luck with the ones they collared”

https://www.uwyo.edu/haub/_files/_docs/ruckelshaus/collaboration/2017-greys-river/2018-wyo-range-winter-update.pdf

 

[highfastflyer]

What is truly disheartening with the Wyoming Range herd is the HUGE dieoffs occurring from birth until arriving at the Winter Range. We have super high pregnancy rates and most does are carrying twin fawns when surveyed with sonography equipment in the field. The pre-natal counts averaged 1.71 fawns per doe. The problem is we go from 1.71 then drop to .83 at the Winter range survey so more than half the fawns never even make it to the winter range. The causes are not yet fully understood and Dr. Monteith has documented a different factor each year as the primary factor like disease, still born and reabsorption of fawns in bad winters, predation and nutrition and stress. Dr. Monteith seems to think nutrition and stress are major causes. It’s truly sad when more than half the fawns are dying before they even make it to the winter range, then we have bad winters one out of every 4 to 5 years which is clobbering the fawn recruitment. The Wyoming Range herd is now at about 29,000 and falling most years even lower it seems. We luckily had a mild winter in Western Wyoming so fawn recruitment will be positive this year but lingering drought and poor range conditions are prevalent.

”Pregnancy rates among mule deer of the Wyoming Range were typically high and ranged between 90-99%. Furthermore, most animals were pregnant with twins each year resulting in relatively high fetal rates (average number of fetuses per pregnant animal was 1.71 ± 0.03 across years; Fig. 4). Although fetal rates tended to be high, recruitment of young tended to be low. Since 2013, approximately half of the potential fawns born in early summer survived to autumn, and fall recruitment averaged 0.83 ± 0.05 fawns per collared female for Wyoming Range mule deer 2013- 2016 but dropped to 0.51 ± 0.11 in 2017, following severe winter conditions of 2016/2017

 

[highfastflyer]

Hey flyer, are you from California? I was in Wyoming and I'm 100% sure the winter that killed a lot of deer was 2016-17. I saw many dead fawns in the spring of 2017 while out antler hunting. Go have someone you trust read the study and explain it to you. Also your buffer zone idea will never happen and it wouldn't bring back the deer herd...

It is apparent which year he was referring to.

”Must have had bad luck with the ones they collared”

 

[Bookhead]

Yea i was referring to the year where apparently everything died. I saw plenty of fawns. The area i was in was mostly the migration route for H i dont much care what you think low slow flyer i was there saw it with my own eyes i dont need any paperwork to tell me what i saw mr.armchair warrior

 

[Bookhead]

Im there every spring putting on lots of miles.

 

[Bookhead]

Oh wait you're rite! I didnt see what i saw my mistake

 

[highfastflyer]

@Founder, just as I stated but I will be patient as you asked.

 

[Bookhead]

Im sure allot died but how they come up with such a high die off could be bad luck with the ones they collared i saw at least one fawn with most groups of does and i was probably a little too high up to be in the area their carcasses would be for winter kill.

 

[Bookhead]

How does my little survey suit you mr flyer? Not a biologist although my step dad was one for a long time i trust their reach for the most part but only taking a sample they can only be so accurate as well

 

[highfastflyer]

How does my little survey suit you mr flyer? Not a biologist although my step dad was one for a long time i trust their reach for the most part but only taking a sample they can only be so accurate as well

“Not a biologist” It shows. It might have helped if you stayed in a holiday Inn Express the night prior.

 

[Bookhead]

Where were you that spring? Probably on here talking smack would be my guess or dreaming up your next big idea to be the mule deer hero

 

[highfastflyer]

Where were you that spring? Probably on here talking smack woukd be my guess or dreaming up your next big idea to be the mule deer hero

I was a volunteer accomplishing those Winter Range mortality surveys. They are quite enjoyable, I highly recommend them. It was a truly gruesome sight that year, 2019 was also bad. https://buckrail.com/winter-deer-mortality-severe-according-to-recent-surveys/

 

[Bookhead]

Well i saw plenty of big bucks in the high country last year so apparently they aren't doing too bad. Saw most age classes of bucks actually hows that possible?

 

[SS!]

I was a volunteer accomplishing those Winter Range mortality surveys. They are quite enjoyable, I highly recommend them. It was a truly gruesome sight that year, 2019 was also bad. https://buckrail.com/winter-deer-mortality-severe-according-to-recent-surveys/

Not all heroes wear capes

Thank You for all you’ve done for Wyoming range mule deer. The fruit of your labor is shown in the health of the herd!

 

[highfastflyer]

Not all heroes wear capes

Thank You for all you’ve done for Wyoming range mule deer. The fruit of your labor is shown in the health of the herd!

Thanks but no praise is needed. We know the shape of the herd.
“ The Wyoming Range mule deer population has undergone dynamic changes in recent decades from a population high of >50,000 in the late 1980s, to a sustained population of ~30,000 during much of the last decade.

Wildlife managers from the Jackson, Pinedale and Green River regions teamed up to do an exhaustive count of the entire Wyoming Range Deer Herd, which stretches from the Snake River Canyon near Alpine on the north to Evanston on the south. Well over 100 hours were spent in a helicopter covering over 1,600 square miles to perform the most comprehensive count of this herd ever done. A total of 25,300 deer were counted, and with the sightability correction factor, they were estimating the herd at 29,000”. https://www.fws.gov/uploadedFiles/WyomingRange_Winter1819.pdf

 

[SS!]

 

[Ultimag]

Hmmmmm.......Maybe we should just save all those wasted millions of tax funded research and data collection

Yeah after all that science ,tax,payer funded,research and,data,collection worked
Really well on covid,19,we,should,Definately trust it for wildlife ? your dismissed

 

[highfastflyer]

Yeah after all that science ,tax,payer funded,research and,data,collection worked
Really well on covid,19,we,should,Definately trust it for wildlife ? your dismissed

So you don’t trust all those taxpayer funded vaccines and scientific research? Hmmmmm........????

 

[highfastflyer]

 

[Ultimag]

So you don’t trust all those taxpayer funded vaccines and scientific research? Hmmmmm........????

no I don't. Never been vaccinated,never will be and science has,been proven wrong
More times,then its been proven right
But scientist will never admit to it

 

[Ultimag]

Your buffer zone MIGHT work short term
But I seriously doubt it is a,long term solution

 

[Ultimag]

Eventually your buffer,zone is,going to run out of habitat & food to support the amount of animals that migrate to your safety/buffer zone
Want to improvei mule deer numbers start improving/ protecting their remaining habitat

 

[highfastflyer]

Eventually your buffer,zone is,going to run out of habitat & food to support the amount of animals that migrate to your safety/buffer zone
Want to improvei mule deer numbers start improving/ protecting their remaining habitat

I fully agree. This is why you adjust the harvest as needed and control it in that small buffer area as required. Yes we need to do far more habitat work, especially on reclaiming poor Winter Range browse conditions. BTW, your denial of sound Science and medical and Biological research is apparent, you have shown all we need to know about your ideas and Ignorance.

 

[Ultimag]

We will agree,to disagree have a,good,day

 

[Ultimag]

after,all sound medical/bioligcal science did such a,great job containing covid

 

[Ultimag]

Have a nice,day your dismissed

 

[JB1975]

I fully agree. This is why you adjust the harvest as needed and control it in that small buffer area as required. Yes we need to do far more habitat work, especially on reclaiming poor Winter Range browse conditions. BTW, your denial of sound Science and medical and Biological research is apparent, you have shown all we need to know about your ideas and Ignorance.

Again, because you don't agree with his philosophy and he doesn't agree with yours, you state that his belief is of "ignorance". I bet money you would not talk like that to most of these members in person. Hiding behind the keyboard slinging insults and condescending remarks is your trademark. Everyone here sees through it.

 

[highfastflyer]

Again, because you don't agree with his philosophy and he doesn't agree with yours, you state that his belief is of "ignorance". I bet money you would not talk like that to most of these members in person. Hiding behind the keyboard slinging insults and condescending remarks is your trademark. Everyone here sees through it.

Denying medical vaccines and sound Biological research and their efficacy is all we need to know about his Ignorance. Are yours just as bold behind your keyboard or are you an anti-vaxxer quack also? Hmmmmmm..........??????

 

[JB1975]

Denying medical vaccines and sound Biological research and their efficacy is all we need to know about his Ignorance. Are yours just as bold behind your keyboard or are you an anti-vaxxer quack also? Hmmmmmm..........??????

Hey dipsXXX. I took the vaccine. Got my second does last week. Everyone on here has choices in life that they each make. The great part about America is they have those choices. Nothing you or I say here should influence anyone. You are not here to teach me about vaccines just like you are not here to teach us all about fawn death studies. You copy and paste stuff more than anyone on this entire website. You never have your own thoughts, it's always someone else's hard work you post on here.

 

[highfastflyer]

Hey dipsXXX. I took the vaccine. Got my second does last week. Everyone on here has choices in life that they each make. The great part about America is they have those choices. Nothing you or I say here should influence anyone. You are not here to teach me about vaccines just like you are not here to teach us all about fawn death studies. You copy and paste stuff more than anyone on this entire website. You never have your own thoughts, it's always someone else's hard work you post on here.

In Science we always study and research documented and peer reviewed research. This is how Science is done. Maybe you could try reading and educating yourself before making such bold statements though I am dubious from your comments. Glad you got vaccinated, try educating and doing some quoting of well established Science and research for your friend.

 

[Ultimag]

Thank you founder for the ignore feature
there is no reasoning with him I'm done playing his games

 

[JB1975]

I have a great education and career. You keep Googling to try to make your point. Have a nice day as SS would say

 

[highfastflyer]

I have a great education and career. You keep Googling to try to make your point. Have a nice day as SS would say

Happy for you, hope it’s not in any Science related field as obviously you know nothing about Science. Have a nice day.

 

[JB1975]

Keep trying to make yourself seem smarter, buddy. Would take an IQ test against you any day. I don't need to Google and copy/paste to make my point. LowSlowGoogler

 

[highfastflyer]

Keep trying to make yourself seem smarter, buddy. Would take an IQ test against you any day. I don't need to Google and copy/paste to make my point. LowSlowGoogler

I continuously try to read Science and Science based journals. One thing is clear as those who deny the poor shape of the Wyoming Range herd, deny well documented data and research then boast of their IQ need serious professional help. I’m sure you’re a legend in your Own mind.

 

[JB1975]

Not once have I made a single comment about any deer death. You have me confused. I simply call out your comments and make mockery of your bashing of everyone else. You have no clue what I know or don't know about wildlife biology as I don't post anything about it.

 

[highfastflyer]

Not once have I made a single comment about any deer death. You have me confused. I simply call out your comments and make mockery of your bashing of everyone else. You have no clue what I know or don't know about wildlife biology as I don't post anything about it.

“You have no clue” Yes we are truly in awe of your legendary status. “Would take an IQ test against you any day.” I could never ever rise to such a level. Looks like that homeopathic weed farm truly panned out for you.

 

[Ultimag]

Not once have I made a single comment about any deer death. You have me confused. I simply call out your comments and make mockery of your bashing of everyone else. You have no clue what I know or don't know about wildlife biology as I don't post anything about it.

Give it up he's the worlds smartest man
I'm just a,middle aged sportsman that used my ignorance to play the,stock market,retire @50 and live Extemely comfortable
He's, not worth. Burning brain cells trying to reason with

 

[highfastflyer]

Give it up he's the worlds smartest man
I'm just a,middle aged sportsman that used my ignorance to play the,stock market,retire @50 and live Extemely comfortable
He's, not worth. Burning brain cells trying to reason with

“He's, not worth. Burning brain cells”
It is obvious he has done plenty of that. Congrats. on your retirement. I hope those vaccine and pharmaceutical stocks allow you to survive and live well.

 

[Ultimag]

Again, because you don't agree with his philosophy and he doesn't agree with yours, you state that his belief is of "ignorance". I bet money you would not talk like that to most of these members in person. Hiding behind the keyboard slinging insults and condescending remarks is your trademark. Everyone here sees through it.

Thanks JB1975