19th annual deer mortality survey

Eleven volunteers and six Wyoming Game and Fish Department personnel completed the 19th annual deer mortality survey on May 5, 2012 in Nugget Canyon, to determine how deer overwintered in the Wyoming Range mule deer herd. Thayne Wildlife Biologist Gary Fralick said the results were much more encouraging than last year’s survey. "The 2011-12 winter was a polar opposite in the effects it had on western Wyoming deer herds,” Fralick said. “The result of the mild winter enabled us to search about 125 miles of transects. Only eight deer were found, compared to 382 carcasses found in 2011. The open, snow-free winter, and mild temperatures allowed extremely high over-winter survival for deer in the Wyoming Range and Sublette mule deer herds, two of Wyoming's premier deer populations.” Department personnel are anticipating 80-90% fawn survival this year compared to only 35%-50% fawn survival following the 2010-11 winter. Fralick believes that a substantial number of fawns will be added to the population this year because of the high overwinter survival, and as a result deer populations in these two deer herds will increase slightly.