mtnrunner260
WKR
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2012
- Messages
- 1,705
Sharing my experience helping with a fawn study this spring.
It was conducted by a university and DWR along with volunteers made up entirely of local hunters as far as I could tell.
Hopefully it doesn't get to long.
The purpose of the study was to learn both movements and causes of mortality of fawns 0-6 months of age. Adults are involved and studied as well. GPS collars that also emit a VHF frequency were used to monitor the deer.
There were two methods to getting the collars on the fawns.
The first involved collaring adult does in the winter. This was done with a helicopter and a net gun.
A variety of measurements and samples are taken and once the ultrasound showed they were pregnant a Vaginal Insert Transmitter (VIT) was placed. The VIT would send a signal to the grad student in the spring once the fawn was born allowing us to move in and search.
The second method (and my favorite) was to post up in a glassing location and look for does with fawns.
We certainly got to spend some time in beautiful country.
It took quality optics and a lot of patience but I got as excited seeing a little fawn in the scope as a mature buck.
That's the back end of a doe poking out at an estimated 1.5 miles. We could see the fawn nursing momentarily.
One person would stay on the glass and guide the rest of the crew in.
It was very challenging to locate the fawns when you couldn't see them bed down. Sometimes taking an hour of grid searching a small area.
But once they were located, as long as they weren't older than 3 or 4 days the fawns would remain perfectly still. Once older they would flush and outrun us.
Again some measurements were taken and a collar was placed on the fawn. The collar is designed with thread the will break every couple weeks to expand the collar as the fawn grows and then fall off around 6 months.
Everyone wore latex gloves to reduce scent transfer and the work was performed quickly as possible to reduce disturbance.
They sure are cute...
and had some smart moms to have them in excellent hiding habitat.
Those last two were a set of twins from a collared doe that had a VIT.
Some overall impressions:
*Those grad students really grind it out and hopefully they can get jobs with an agency soon.
*Lots of volunteer hours by local sportsmen and women was really nice to see.
*Good glass(tripod included) finds the deer/fawns, patience is also required as we found fawns 2+ hours into sits. -Gives me more focus for my fall hunts to spend time behind the glass.
*The state biologist sure have a lot of non biology duties that eat a lot of their time.
*Lots of ways for a deer to die including predators but habitat is king when it comes to survival or death.
Even got to see some other wildlife out and about.
Hopefully the results of this study (and others) will direct management decisions towards the benefit of mule deer. Not to be pessimistic but with all the pressures of habitat loss due to human expansion, fires, roadkill losses, interrupted migration corridors, loss of predator hunting etc we may be lucky to just slow the decline of mule deer throughout the west and not increase herd numbers.
But I for one plan to make the most of the "good old days" of hunting as these may come to be known.
It was conducted by a university and DWR along with volunteers made up entirely of local hunters as far as I could tell.
Hopefully it doesn't get to long.
The purpose of the study was to learn both movements and causes of mortality of fawns 0-6 months of age. Adults are involved and studied as well. GPS collars that also emit a VHF frequency were used to monitor the deer.
There were two methods to getting the collars on the fawns.
The first involved collaring adult does in the winter. This was done with a helicopter and a net gun.
A variety of measurements and samples are taken and once the ultrasound showed they were pregnant a Vaginal Insert Transmitter (VIT) was placed. The VIT would send a signal to the grad student in the spring once the fawn was born allowing us to move in and search.
The second method (and my favorite) was to post up in a glassing location and look for does with fawns.
We certainly got to spend some time in beautiful country.
It took quality optics and a lot of patience but I got as excited seeing a little fawn in the scope as a mature buck.
That's the back end of a doe poking out at an estimated 1.5 miles. We could see the fawn nursing momentarily.
One person would stay on the glass and guide the rest of the crew in.
It was very challenging to locate the fawns when you couldn't see them bed down. Sometimes taking an hour of grid searching a small area.
But once they were located, as long as they weren't older than 3 or 4 days the fawns would remain perfectly still. Once older they would flush and outrun us.
Again some measurements were taken and a collar was placed on the fawn. The collar is designed with thread the will break every couple weeks to expand the collar as the fawn grows and then fall off around 6 months.
Everyone wore latex gloves to reduce scent transfer and the work was performed quickly as possible to reduce disturbance.
They sure are cute...
and had some smart moms to have them in excellent hiding habitat.
Those last two were a set of twins from a collared doe that had a VIT.
Some overall impressions:
*Those grad students really grind it out and hopefully they can get jobs with an agency soon.
*Lots of volunteer hours by local sportsmen and women was really nice to see.
*Good glass(tripod included) finds the deer/fawns, patience is also required as we found fawns 2+ hours into sits. -Gives me more focus for my fall hunts to spend time behind the glass.
*The state biologist sure have a lot of non biology duties that eat a lot of their time.
*Lots of ways for a deer to die including predators but habitat is king when it comes to survival or death.
Even got to see some other wildlife out and about.
Hopefully the results of this study (and others) will direct management decisions towards the benefit of mule deer. Not to be pessimistic but with all the pressures of habitat loss due to human expansion, fires, roadkill losses, interrupted migration corridors, loss of predator hunting etc we may be lucky to just slow the decline of mule deer throughout the west and not increase herd numbers.
But I for one plan to make the most of the "good old days" of hunting as these may come to be known.
