East Idaho Deer Winter Kill- Bad!

[Christian]

I've been hearing from a turkey hunter who started April 15th there are "hundreds" of dead deer along the S. Fk of the Snake River. Those are the 67/65/64 deer that took it in the shorts 2007/2008. Anyone seeing this, too?

The Christian

 

[chewyman55]

Yikes. Those are the deer I chase! You got to feel for those critters on a year like this. I hope spring goes easy on the remaining deer.

 

[Bullelk1]

IDFG reports fawn mortality on Sand Creek at 83%. I suspect its not much better up the river.

 

[Christian]

Bummer, we were just starting to show some improvement from the 07/08 winter kill and now this. So now we are at least missing the 2005, 2007, and 2010 fawn crops from many of the SE/E Idaho units. That hurts!

Apparantly some of the central Idaho units have fared better so far. They can't be worse than what we're seeing now. One game warden told me last week that this winter was harder on deer than the 07/08 winter. I was surprised, but he seems to be right.


The Christian

 

[HalfAce]

I was hoping to check out those zones next year, figured that the herd would be on the up an up from 07/08. Here we go again though, mother nature throws another curve ball. I cant help but feel bad for animals out there. Hopefully the next few winters lighten up some.

 

[Bullelk1]

Its global warming, I tell ya.

 

[Muleys24Seven]

It's real bad and I'm sick about it.

I went to a F&G public meeting in the begining of March and the collared fawn mortality rate was the highest in recorded history at that point (upper snake region). The biologist was still oppimistic but as cold as the last two months have been I believe the die off will be worse than 07/08.

Its not over yet either, the deer are still having a tough time. Not too much green-up and they are still feeding in much of the same areas that they migrated early to in Nov.

Went up last weeked and noticed quite a few winter elk kills...you know its bad when elk are crashing.

 

[TOPGUN]

That's a real shame! If it's been so bad that the elk can't make it through, I imagine all the deer are in dire straits by now!!!