>Deedub, respectfully disagree somewhat, here's why:
>The examples you gave are
>of "zoo" habitat, artificially low
>or no hunting pressure on
>summer and winter ranges. I
>have good bucks in my
>yard most winter days in
>CO Springs, but they are
>basically urban pets, and very
>inbred.
>
>When 200 elk fall through the
>ice and die on Blue
>Mesa Reservoir because it covers
>their historic wintering ground, I
>guess that is a Darwinian
>kind of adaptation, but not
>a beneficial one. Ditto w
>roads, trains, dogs. Every wildlife
>biologist I've spoken w in
>CO has agreed that shrinking
>winter range places the most
>profound limitation on big game
>herds of any single factor.
>That is why I mention
>it here.
>
>In the big winter kill of
>07-08, where did the deer
>die? On what was left
>of winter range. Sage is
>better for deer in winter
>than cow pastures where there
>is nothing to browse. Where
>there are good sage lowlands,
>big game winters well. Reference
>NW CO, where the huge
>herds from Flattops and Bear's
>Ears have vast sage lowlands
>on which to winter. Those
>are the largest elk herds
>in the world.
>
>As always, dissenting opinions welcomed and
>valued!
Good points elkduds. Those nw elk herds are impressive, there was about an 8 year stretch awhile back where they allowed you 2 elk! I took advantage!
I also drew a 201 buck tag in 2014! Limited tags, tons of winter range like you stated. Yet the deer density is mediocre at best. What explains the elk doing so well and the deer lagging behind? That bad winter was 8 yrs ago, it still has some lingering effect, but after 8 yrs things should be much better than they are. I realize it's the $64k question that even our biologists struggle to answer. What's changed from the glory days of the 50's and 60's? Fire suppression, and fur prices. Nobody would let a weeks pay trot off without firein a shot back then! I've lived in the same place the last 20yrs and until the past couple years deer were scarce. Now I see em on a pretty regular basis. The only thing that's changed in that time is the mange came thru a few years ago and wiped out the coyotes. Doubt it's the cure all but it's surely a part of the equation. Once our high country starts to regenerate itself after this beetle situation I think we'll be back to seein more and bigger deer. If we can knock the coyotes back in conjunction, I think it could be the glory days of mule deer hunting in colorado! We can only hope!