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What is the big deal? Using helicopters to capture wildlife is done all the time on just about every continent.
Quote from: nwwanderer on December 06, 2017, 07:00:48 AMThe big deal is cost and effectiveness. Could the same be done studying road kill and flying drones for 10 cents on the dollar? Is the data used efficiently? In this case no. Read the article. Road kill will tell you nothing. Drones have uses. In this case again no. Helicopter are proven to be more cost effective for many studies. In this case using a helicopter would save big time over other methods. To use other methods would cost much more in staff time and I am willing to bet they would not get a statistical significant sample size.Understanding migration patterns is a big deal in all states with migratory deer. It not a case of look at it once and walk away. It is continually looked at over time and as new technology and research methods are developed it is looked at again. I think another way to look at is to consider a contractor who has a project. What is the tool he will use, buy, or lease to do the job? Maybe he needs to dig a big ditch. He could use manpower, small piece of equipment or a large piece of equipment. He may own a small backhoe and could get the job done with it. Or he could lease a larger backhoe and get the job done faster lowering cost.
The big deal is cost and effectiveness. Could the same be done studying road kill and flying drones for 10 cents on the dollar? Is the data used efficiently?
I think the Methow would have been a better area, then they might figure out the herd is in bad shape.
Why Helicopters?? Spend more money that way! Besides, To many employees are to lazy and scared to do it the way they used to!!!It required skill and muscle power!!!
It seems like the right time of the year to do it and with the concern on here regarding the health of mule deer populations in the state, I'd think most people would support the study. They'll certainly also be testing for CWD and possibly other diseases, as well. It looks like a good thing to me.
A partner of mine killed a HUGE buck back in the 1980,s , if I remember right it was a 4 by 4 and field dressed, weighed in in the low 300,s(I,ll do some checking), anyway it had a collar on it with a transmitter and a brass tag that said if this collar is found please contact the game dept. (along with other contact info). We turned it in to the game folks we knew and they came up with some Bio,s and other game folks and gave the old buck a good looking over, they told us thank you and said we would be getting a detailed letter about the bucks life during the 3 or 4 years they tracked him. What I remember from the letter was the buck was trapped using a helicopter in the winter of 1982 in the northern part of the Methow on the winter range as a 3 1/2 year old, they picked him from a lot of other bucks because they said he was a "prime specimen" at the time, big, healthy and dominant, they tracked him for 3-4years until the batteries went dead, they had his summer range approx 20 to 25 miles into British Columbia and every winter he would migrate the 50 plus miles to his winter range in the Methow, the batteries had went dead and they lost track of him for a few years. They figured he had been nabbed by a predator or died of natural causes because of his age by then and also the collar not being turned in by hunters. I remember in the packet my friend got in the mail along with the letter and biography were a bunch of pictures showing the trapping and collaring of the buck, one of the pics were of the deer in a net being dipped into the Chewuch river with a helicopter to kind of "wake him up" a little. We heard from a Game dept. friend that the biologist that handled that buck put the collar on a plaque and it hung on his mantle at his house, it was his first mule deer project as a young bio and it really meant something to him.....
