Tagged: mule deer

Listen to the story

Mule deer have been dying off in parts of Wyoming for some time. But until recently, it was unclear how acute the problem was. That’s because the Game and Fish Department wasn’t getting an accurate count of how many deer there were. Now, the agency is trying out a new method for estimating deer populations. It’s much more expensive … but officials say it’s worth the cost because it will help them maintain a healthy deer population. Wyoming Public Radio’s Willow Belden reports.

The Game and Fish Department has drawn up a new management plan for mule deer in the Platte Valley. The herd there has been declining for some time, and the management plan is aimed at reversing that trend.

The plan includes measures to limit mule deer hunting, improve the animals’ habitat and curb predation by bears and lions.

Regional Wildlife Supervisor Rick King says currently, an unlimited number of mule deer licenses can be sold.

“If you just go down to your local license-selling agent or come into a Game and Fish office, you can buy a general license,” he said. “They’re not limited in number, and you can use that license in any hunt area in the state that has a general season.”

Researchers hope to determine how much development mule deer can tolerate on their migration routes.

Biologist Hall Sawyer found in a recent study that when mule deer travel between their summer and winter ranges, they spend 95 percent of their time stopping and eating.

“If we consider these migration routes highways, the stopovers would be like the hotels, where you crash in for the night and grab a bite to eat,” Sawyer said. “And maybe you stay there for a night, maybe you stay for a week.”

Sawyer says the young plants that the deer eat in these stopover areas are particularly nutritious, and some scientists hypothesize that if there’s too much development, the animals would migrate faster and would miss out on important food sources.

The Game and Fish Department is coming up with a new management plan for mule deer in the Platte Valley.

The mule deer population has declined by at least 30 percent over the past few decades, and last fall, Game and Fish solicited input from the public about how to address the problem.

Tom Ryder, assistant chief of the wildlife division, says the management plan will incorporate the public’s input and will likely change how mule deer in the Platte Valley can be hunted. He says the plan will also probably focus on ways to improve their habitat – for example, by addressing beetle kill in the Medicine BowNational Forest.

Wildlife officials in western Wyoming are looking to the public for help protecting mule deer as they migrate
to their winter ranges.   Deer from Wyoming's two largest herds - the Sublette and Wyoming
Range herds - are migrating to the area around Pinedale, Big Piney and LaBarge for the winter. As the thousands of animals move, trophy mule deer can more easily be seen than in the backcountry,
making them tempting to poachers.