Bad news for South Central Wyoming

[Buckjunkie]

Severe conditions are killing Antelope and Deer in record numbers. Even elk are dying in South Central Wyoming.

.https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/03/29/dying-by-the-thousands-miles-of-death-as-wyoming-antelope-deer-and-elk-die-from-winter-starvation/

[MADMAX]

Terrible
I wonder why they aren’t feeding them
You’d think they’d be dropping alfalfa

[Bob33]

Here's another article from today on the topic.

.https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/04/06/wyoming-winter-killing-most-premier-antelope-herds-in-the-entire-world/

[huntnphool]

 More global warming evidence.

[mburrows]

Terrible
I wonder why they aren’t feeding them
You’d think they’d be dropping alfalfa

They are in a lot of places in Wyoming. Same with Idaho and Utah but you can only feed so many head.

[birdshooter1189]

Those pictures are hard for me to look at. That's really sad. Between the photo with 9 dead antelope on a small patch of dirt surrounded by snow. And then the photo from the plane showing solid snow covered hills as far as I can see....My initial response was "just feed them more".  But when I saw the photo from the plane my heart sank as I saw the enormity of the dire situation....

[Stein]

MT hunters shot 1,000 bison as well, tons left the park.

[birdshooter1189]

MT hunters shot 1,000 bison as well, tons left the park.

I saw that too. It also added that the park herd is (was) about 6000 bison. And of the 1000 that were shot by "hunters" in Montana, the majority of them were taken by tribes through special tags and allowances extended to them.

[andrew_in_idaho]

I don’t know about antelope, but feeding deer really doesn’t do any good


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[bearpaw]

I don’t know about antelope, but feeding deer really doesn’t do any good


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Feeding is the only thing keeping elk and deer alive in SE Idaho. They have been feeding for months in some areas. Whenever we have a hard winter they feed.

[Ridgerunner]

It's been a brutal winter across the rockies.  Really sucks, it will be interesting to see how quickly the game comes back but its going to be a few years before things get back to normal.  Even then I'm afraid it will be a "new normal" with lower herd numbers. 

At least here in WA we have been spared of as harsh of a winter. 

[baldopepper]

It will be interesting to see how the various game departments react.  I have read where Wyoming and Colorado are anticipating some fairly severe restrictions. Haven't really heard anything on Montana, and did hear Utah cut back on tags in some units.  Nothing really out of Idaho, even though with some feeding,  estimates in the southeast units are running.in the 60-70% range on deer. It took 6-7 years in Utah after the last severe winter, and realistically many units never have fully recovered. I can tell you it's hard to go back to some of your.old.spots and find way more bleached white skeletons than live animals

[Ridgerunner]

They are already pushing back the shed hunting openers.  I'm guessing some significant tag cuts will be coming. 

I wish I had cashed in my wyoming antelope points last fall, at least I did deer. 

[mburrows]

It will be interesting to see how the various game departments react.  I have read where Wyoming and Colorado are anticipating some fairly severe restrictions. Haven't really heard anything on Montana, and did hear Utah cut back on tags in some units.  Nothing really out of Idaho, even though with some feeding,  estimates in the southeast units are running.in the 60-70% range on deer. It took 6-7 years in Utah after the last severe winter, and realistically many units never have fully recovered. I can tell you it's hard to go back to some of your.old.spots and find way more bleached white skeletons than live animals

Montana won’t cut non resident general tags. I hope they cut some of b tags though the regs already say how many they’re giving out per district for those. We’ve got a lot of snow up high but our winter ranges didn’t get blanked as bad as the other states.

[zwickeyman]

We are finally getting some warmer weather here in the Tetons. Southern slopes are stating to show but the flats are 24" with multiple Ice layers. The survivors so far might make it. Compound low Fawn survival with the possibility of Does aborting their Fawns there wont be many Fawns or Yearlings this year

Any body know how the winter kill is up in the Challis and Sun Valley areas are?