Hunting Washington Forum
Big Game Hunting => Deer Hunting => Topic started by: Stein on January 28, 2023, 10:28:16 AM
-
Interesting project in Wyoming:
-
Wdfw is doing one of these studies here. They netted four deer on my property a few years ago and a few more a couple years ago. One of them is a local deer but a couple others are migrators and return every winter. The crazy thing is the path they take to summer ground and back again are basically the same each direction and the same each year. One of them did die the first year but they didn’t get to it for 48 hours. Coyotes had wreaked havoc on it by then so they couldn’t tell if it was coyotes originally or a cougar kill that coyotes then found. There was a collared wolf in the area but the collared deer and wolf didn’t cross paths.
These studies tell them a ton about migration patterns and zero in on what is critically habitat/travel corridors.
-
I know I’ve probably told a few of these stories, probably more than once😆. My dad back in the 40,s and myself in the 60,s used to help trap deer the old fashioned way. We built pens in certain areas in the Methow, the Game Department (not WDFW) used to “recruit” college students, cowboys and pretty much anyone else who wanted to help trap, tag and document movement of mule deer. My first time was in the early 60,s, my job was to sit on a small knoll that led into a “net funnel” that trapped deer in about a 2000 or so square foot pen. My job, stay hidden behind a big pine and bang a hammer against an old wash pan when guys on horseback or in a helicopter drove the deer towards the pens. When the deer started running towards the funnel I started making noise😆 Some of my fondest memories are of these times, in fact, about 20 years or so ago I went into one of these trap areas in the Methow (one of my favorites) and found a lone pole that was dug into the dirt. The pole is about 12 foot tall and was the only one left that used to hold the nets. The rest were disintegrated into the earth. This pole sits in my sons “museum/man cave” that represents our family’s hunting history. Great memories.
-
They study them to death, sorry
-
