Eyes In Sky Give Big Picture On Deer Numbers
 

IDAHO FALLS - Nowadays just about everyone has a digital camera or understands how they work.   There is a little button that lets you zoom in on an image or lets you back out to get the big picture. When it comes to managing mule deer and other ungulates (members of the deer family), IDFG has been working that little button pretty darn hard over the last few weeks. To get the big picture, IDFG has been flying in leased helicopters counting deer every chance that weather would allow. To get zoomed in on how individual animals are doing, IDFG has been using the same choppers to drive deer into nets where waiting volunteers and staff jump out to restrain animals so that radio collars could be placed on the fawns to track where and if they survive the winter. Information from this wide-spectrum approach will be used to help IDFG biologists manage mule deer herds as best possible.

Even if money were no object, counting every single animal in the woods would be an impossible task. Instead, biologists have a proven method for estimating mule deer populations using aerial survey data from given areas and plugging the information into computer models. By comparing information from the same areas year after year, biologists are able to track how populations are doing.   This year the flights were conducted in the Heise and Sand Creek areas, along with Unit 50 outside of Arco. According to Regional Wildlife Manager Daryl Meints, "At Heise our buck:doe ratios and overall total population assessment were the best we have recorded!" Other parts of the region fared equally well, "In Unit 50 we had our highest ever buck:doe:fawn ratios ever! The overall wintering population continues to be robust," said Meints. Even those areas not exhibiting much change will be reviewed, said Meints. "On the desert by Sand Creek our highly productive mule deer herd yielded no big surprises either, but we'll still be taking a look to see if we can manage it even better in the future."

Along with the information gathered from the air, biologists are now also tracking nearly 100 deer and elk that were fitted with radio collars after being trapped in drive nets. 50 of these collars were placed on fawns from the Heise and Tex Creek areas. Additionally, 23 doe deer and 18 cow elk were trapped and collared at Tex Creek near Ririe, along with nine doe deer and 11 cow elk outside of St. Anthony near the Sand Creek Wildlife Management Area.   Meints said, "We'll also be collaring additional adult deer and elk in Unit 50 and if funds allow we're going to try and collar deer in Unit 51 as well." Each day, wildlife technicians head out into the field to not only track animal movements, but also to record whether the animal is still alive. If a radio mortality signal is received, then the technician must immediately scour the woods to find the carcass and make a determination as to why the animal died.   Did it die of starvation or a predator, and if a predator, which one?

This highly personalized data collection fits hand in glove with the big picture work accomplished by the aerial surveys.   All of this information, plus hunter harvest reports will be used by wildlife managers to come up with their suggestions for upcoming big game seasons.   Public meetings will be held in the Upper Snake Region during mid-February. The public will be able to come and discuss the available scientific data and talk with staff about plans for future management and hunting opportunities.

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