RE: PGC SAYS DEER ARE STARVING
To obtain data on deer health, Wildlife Conservation Officers examined female deer killed by various causes from 1 February through 31 May 2005. They recorded location (county, township, and WMU), date killed, cause of death, and number and sex of embryos for each doe on a form attached to a deer jaw envelope. They measured embryos so that we could determine conception and projected birth dates and removed 1 side of the lower jaw from each deer for age determination. Jaws were forwarded to Region Wildlife Management Supervisors, who along with the Deer Management Section, made the age assignments in July 2005. Personnel in the Bureau of Automated Technology Services (BATS) processed the reproductive data and provided summary reports for the state and each WMU.
Based on results from published studies (Cheatum and Severinghaus 1950, Verme 1965, Verme 1967, Verme 1969, Hesselton and Sauer 1973, Hesselton and Jackson 1974, McCullough 1979, Stoll and Parker 1986, Folk and Klinstra 1991, Osborne et al 1992, Taylor 1996, Swihart et al 1998), we defined good, satisfactory, and poor deer health as follows. For 3-year-old and older females, at least 1.7 embryos per doe was considered good, less than 1.5 embryos per doe was considered poor. For 2-year-old females, at least 1.5 embryos per doe was considered good and less than 1.1 embryos was considered poor. For 1-year-old females, if at least 30% were pregnant, deer health was considered good. If 10% or fewer were pregnant, deer health was considered poor. For all values, satisfactory falls between cutoffs for good and poor.
Due to uncertainty associated with sampling and use of generalized cutoffs based on published results, we did not expect complete agreement in reproductive assessments across age classes within a WMU. As a result, we considered reproductive measures of 3-year-old and older females as most important in assessing WMU level deer health, because this age class produces the greatest number of offspring and has the greatest effect on the population. Pregnancy rates of 1-year-old females followed 3-year-old and older embryo counts in importance because female fawn breeding stops at high population sizes (McCullough 1979). In New York, Hesselton and Jackson (1974) demonstrated that female fawns, or 1-year-old females, are most sensitive to range conditions.