After a dismal 2009 season in which hunters took their fewest number of deer in 27 years, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is prepared to spend $2 million to see if coyotes, wolves, and other predators are to blame, and also to determine what affects the survival of whitetail bucks. The studies are the most expensive deer research ever conducted in the state.
July 25 on thenorthwestern.com:
About $2 million in Federal Wildlife Restoration Fund money from Pittman-Robertson (money from excise taxes on the sales of ammunition and firearms) will be used to pay for the studies. Of that, $400,000 will be used to hire University of Wisconsin graduate students to assist with the research, said Dr. Chris Jacques, DNR deer research scientist and coordinator of both studies.
Many of the state’s hunters have questioned the DNR’s ability to accurately calculate deer populations, particularly after the DNR said it miscalculated the overall population by about 50 percent after a severe winter in 2007 and 2008.
At hearings the past two years throughout the state, hunters have reported seeing far fewer deer in most deer management units, and some have threatened to close their land to all hunters and boycott the 2010 season. …
The $1.14 million buck mortality study will use radio telemetry and ear tags to follow 150 bucks in each study area. Box traps, netted cage traps and netting by helicopter will be used to capture the bucks, [Jacques] noted. It will begin in January 2011. …The $360,000 fawn mortality study will trap 50 fawns per spring and see what their survival rates are until the deer season begins. The two-year study will begin in May 2011.
Is this a good use of $2 million? With Wisconsin under fire for its deer management—will this study do any good?
