Bad Year for the Little Deer

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What a crappy year for the fawns. I went up to the Crawford Mtns. in northern Utah antler hunting the other day. I went up there primarily just to get a feel for how hard the winter was on the deer that come out of region G. The area is part of the winter range for the deer from regions G and K in Wyoming.

I would guess that 90%+ of the fawns were lost up there. I found 50-60 dead deer. Most were fawns, 4-5 were what I estimate to be yearlings and a couple that were probably adult does. I didn't find any dead mature bucks, but I'm sure the winter got a few. I did see a couple fawns with groups of deer, so a few survived.

I made it a point to look closely at all the dead deer I saw, because I wanted to know for sure whether they were fawns, does, young bucks, older bucks, etc. I sure hated seeing all the fawns like these photos below. It's a real bummer that there's nothing more sportsmen can do. Just nature.......

Not sure if there was any feeding going on up there or not. Maybe it would have saved some of those fawns had it been done. I don't know...???

It'll be interesting to see what I find in Wyoming in May. Hopefully it's no worse than this, I'll see.

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Brian Latturner
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Not what we like to see.

I do see that you found at least one antler. How did the antler hunt go Brian???
 
"I made it a point to look closely at all the dead deer I saw, because I wanted to know for sure whether they were fawns, does, young bucks, older bucks, etc. I sure hated seeing all the fawns like these photos below. It's a real bummer that there's nothing more sportsmen can do"

I volunteered to feed up here, as this area is a few minutes from my house. I contacted SFW and was told that they were already feeding. I was glad they did (were). Of course the feeding did not prevent the high mortality. However, I am sure that they did and am sure that it helped.

The elk have had a rough winter too and I would be interested to know the winter kill rate. Hope you did well on the shed hunt. I did not go that way but might later this week. I am sure there were a lot of people....
 
Such a sad heart breaking deal. Same here in Oregon the little fawns just got hammered.

I think a lot of us were expecting a lot of winter kill this year. In 3-4 years it will really show in the herd numbers.
 
I was on the west side of the crawfords and I unfortunately saw a fawn still alive, but only barely, pretty sad to see
 
>Really interested to see how the
>Wyoming deer did too! Hope
>its not too bad.

Alot of these above are Wyoming Deer!










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I have been hiking around the Ogden unit in Northern Utah a little bit the past couple weeks. I've seen several groups of does with fawns. I have not stumbled across any winter killed fawns. Granted I've only really hike in one area though. Does anybody have any on the ground information in the Ogden unit?
 
I hiked around above my house in Farmington yesterday. Found two dead fawns. Got to look at a few deer and they looked real healthy, nowhere near as bad as the deer on the Crawfords.

Brian Latturner
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Thanks Brian, I think it warmed up in time here along the northern Wasatch Front. We had a ton of snow from mid December to the first week of February. But then after that I could almost mow my lawn the rest of the way
 
Any news on the deer from H who winter in the swan valley? I know a lot of the deer in the snake river range go west to the lower elevations on the Idaho side toward Ririe.

I know the snow was deep there as well, but but hopefully not as bad as in Star Valley or the Pinedale side????


I friend of mine sent me a picture of the gas station in Bondurant at the peak of the snow and.......holy crap. You would have thought it was on the top of the tram as snowbird.

"That's a special feeling, Lloyd"
 
I talked to a guy about the deer mortality of Idaho wintering deer, many come from Unit H.
He said is was far above average winter kill. They are not finished but thought only 20-30% of fawns would live.

This is in the Palisades area, lower, but that general area.
 
20%~30% is better than the 0-5% I'm hearing elsewhere. Anyone know the average % that make it in a "normal" winter?



"That's a special feeling, Lloyd"
 
May 16 shed collection legal today in the Gunnison Basin. Started the day at a County Commissioners Meeting. Trying to stop 25 miles of MT bike trails just East of town...looking bad for the deer winter range. Got home and saddled one. No need to post any dead deer pics..39 dead. 30 fawns 7 does 2 bucks..an hour ride. Then home to irrigate...11 sheds. 8 brown 3 old...they don't find them all before it opens...but folks had been in there early. Our CPW DID GOOD.2016 unit 55 BUCK tags 390 this year 100. Mortally study shows we lost 18% of our does. 78% of our fawns January to May 2017.. I will post some pics of our sage and juniper utilization when I get to a "server"
 
I just got back from a few days hiking around up in Wyo G area and I was totally surprised by the amount of deer I saw.

Pretty much the same amount as far as numbers goes from the same 4 days in 2016, mid-May.

I am pretty content on applying/burning my deer points now.

Robb
 

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