as for the deer with collars, explain more..do these have batterys in collar and how long does battery last?can they tell if deer has been shot and collar removed?how many had those type of collars on?or was it just ear tag?
if its just tag in ear, well, poachers over there most likely are eating that one..poaching was real bad over there this year..
Sproul, here is the press release from the first year of the study. You really ought to sign on to the PGC website and read the journals from the original fawn study. the deerget collars that send out a mortality signalwhen the deer stops moving for 4 hours.
http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/view.asp?Q=167184&A=11
[size=5 roman,georga,times]Pennsylvania Game Commission - State Wildlife Management Agency[/size]
2006 Press Releases
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Release #006-06
FIRST YEAR OF DOE STUDY COMES TO A CLOSE
HARRISBURG - The first year of a mid-state study focusing on female white-tailed deer survival and behavior during hunting seasons recently concluded. The three-year research project is a cooperative venture between the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Pennsylvania Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Penn State University.
The study, which is being conducted in Wildlife Management Units (WMUs) 2G and 4B, is designed to answer the following questions: What percentage of female deer survive from one hunting season to the next in both big woods and mixed habitats? What factors influence survival of female deer? What is hunter density on public and private lands? How do female deer respond to hunting activity on public and private lands? Do environmental factors influence the harvest of female deer?
In recent years, results from a series of research projects on white-tailed deer have been used to guide and refine deer management decisions made by the Game Commission. These studies include: a fawn survival study (2000-2001); a buck survival and movement study (2001-2005); a rut timing and conception study (2000-present); an antler measurement study (2000-2001); an evaluation of deer harvest estimates and reporting rates (2003-2004); and chronic wasting disease surveillance (1998-present). Information on many of these research projects can be found on the agency's website at (www.pgc.state.pa.us) by clicking on "Wildlife" and then choosing "Deer."
"This current study was designed to address a number of needs in our deer management program," said Dr. Christopher Rosenberry, Game Commission Deer Management Section supervisor. "Getting a clearer picture and better understanding of female white-tailed deer survival will help us in monitoring deer populations at the WMU level and making management decisions to adjust the size of WMU deer herds through the issuance of antlerless deer licenses. Previous research and an independent scientific review have confirmed our harvest estimates are valid. However, survival outside of hunting seasons and the factors affecting it are not well-known for Pennsylvania deer."
In the spring of 2005, the first year of the ongoing study, deer capture efforts were concentrated on public lands. Field crews captured nearly 250 deer. In WMU 2G, radio collars were put on 76 female deer, while 48 female deer were fitted with radio collars in WMU 4B. Survival and movements of radio-collared does were then monitored throughout the summer and fall.
From the time they were captured to the beginning of the hunting season, preliminary survival rates for female deer were about 85 percent. Collisions with vehicles, starvation and undetermined causes accounted for most deaths.
Going into the hunting seasons, 92 deer (54 in WMU 2G and 38 in WMU 4B) were being tracked by researchers. Seven percentof the WMU 2G study deer were taken by hunters compared to 21 percent of the WMU 4B deer. Similar to results from the buck and fawn studies, illegal harvest was minimal and, to the researchers' knowledge, none of the radio-collared deer were illegally killed this past year.
"Although we have confirmed 15 percent of study deer were taken by hunters, we would not say these results should be applied to other areas of Pennsylvania, let alone the statewide harvest," noted Dr. Duane Diefenbach, Pennsylvania Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit assistant leader. "Unlike the buck study where we had hundreds of marked bucks scattered across large, diverse areas, these results involve fewer deer from specific areas."
In Pennsylvania, antlered deer and antlerless deer harvests are managed differently. Every hunter who purchases a hunting license can legally harvest a buck. To harvest an antlerless deer - including young males, or button bucks - hunters must obtain an antlerless license. The antlerless license allocation has been a central part of the Game Commission's deer management program for decades and is used to adjust the harvest of antlerless deer at the WMU level.
"The antlerless deer license allocation changes from year to year and by WMU to reflect changes in antlerless deer populations over time," Rosenberry said. "Because of these changes, it's more difficult to apply study deer harvest rates across WMUs. For this reason, we focused on estimating non-hunting season survival of female deer, their movements and response to hunting activity, and hunter distributions when we developed this study."
Bret Wallingford, Game Commission biologist, noted that the antlerless deer study differs from the recently completed buck study.
"The buck study was designed to estimate harvest rates and monitor the effects of antler restrictions across large areas with similar regulations," Wallingford said. "We now are focusing on hunter densities and distribution and how they may differ on public and private lands.
"Furthermore, we are interested in documenting how land ownership and other environmental factors are related to when and where female deer are harvested. Over the course of our research on female deer we hope to monitor their survival outside of the hunting season and movements on both public and private land and in a variety of landscapes."
Although analysis of movement data during the hunting season is ongoing, some interesting anecdotal movements have been observed.
"In the buck study, we monitored more than 450 yearling males and the largest dispersal movement was 26 miles," noted Matthew Keenan, a graduate student at Penn State University. "In this study, we actually had one doe travel more than 30 miles in WMU 4B. This doe was uncooperative when captured and kicked off her collar once while we were handling her. We were able to fit her with a radio-collar and monitored her movements after release. Then, in May she took off. Her desire to travel caught up to her when she was hit by a car on U.S. Route 22/322 last fall.
"In WMU 2G, we had one doe travel about 11 miles, but on average, most does remained within a mile of where they were captured. Given the relatively few number of females handled so far in this study, we were surprised to document such long-distance dispersal movements."
Efforts to estimate hunter densities across the study areas were hampered by poor weather early in the regular firearms season, but a number of flights were flown during the weekends and second week. Analysis of these data has not been completed, and more flights will be conducted next hunting season.
"The first year of this study went well," noted Wallingford. "Our field crews, led by biologist aides Walter 'Deet' James, and Jason Kougher did an excellent job all year. We had good capture success and gathered important data on doe survival outside of the hunting season, movements, response to hunting activity and hunter densities. Future work on this study will continue to focus on meeting these objectives."
New trapping crews have started field work for the 2006 capture season. Capture efforts this year will result in radio-collared deer being monitored on public and private lands in expanded areas of both study areas.
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Content Last Modified on 1/20/2006 3:58:21 PM
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In your last post you said:
douge, when they clearcutted the area in that test area,say about 20 years ago,the deer never came back..first, deer were not there before cuttings do to doe killing we had there..
I dont know the area you're talkiing about but if the deer havent come back for 20 years then it aint just the hunters that caused it.
As for the coyotes, I have articles somewhere from the late 60's or early 70's talking about coyotes getting a foothold here in PA