Don Peay's "sacrificial anode"

[Oak]

For those who may not know, SFW is funding a study in UT to see if mule deer can be transplanted from areas of over-population to areas where the herd is under objective. Scientific history suggests that mule deer do not transplant well, but SFW didn't believe the history and wanted to try it again. In January they translocated and collared 102 deer, and also collared 50 resident deer as a control group. History seems to be repeating itself, as to date there has been mortality of 5 of 50 resident deer and 44 of 102 translocated deer. You can read more about the study and the results here.

Now The Don is admitting that the biologists may be right, but he is suggesting that transplanting may still be successful in one way, by feeding the predators transplanted deer and taking pressure off the resident deer. He is also suggesting they change the parameters of the study midstream, as I suspect he is not liking the results. Here is an email from Don. Any opinions?

From: Don Peay <mailto:[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2013 10:41 AM
To: David Smedley, XXXXXXXXXXX
Subject: Some additional thoughts

David

Thanks for your analysis, and the additional thoughts and the conservative or cautious estimate and cause of unknown deaths.
In late August, you reported on dead deer found and unharmed, the rest have been scavenged

5. thoughts

1. Do deer just fall over and die in good habitat in the summer, when other deer are showing no signs of disease?

2. If you assume a random distribution of deer dying from say the Monday they were checked, till they were found dead the next Monday, a fair number of deer would have died in the Friday, Saturday, or Sunday and the fact all but one dead deer has been scavenged, coyote death is probably a good probability of death. I doubt most of the deer died on Tuesday or Wednesday of natural causes giving coyotes 3 to 5 days to find them and scavenge them.

3. I think one enhancement of the study next year is to not look for fawns until September. Jim Karpowitz said several times from his deer study it is futile looking for fawns until late August, or September. And the. Focus could be greater intensity on finding the cause of death in 7 days interim from survey.

4. Sacrificial anode theory. I think this study is proving the sportsmen right, and the DWR right. The DWR - specifically former game manager mike welch - that the transplanted deer didn't do as well as natives. However, sportsmen might be right, the transplanted Deer take some pressure from predation of native herds. Thus, in the end, a successful restoration of the Henry Mountain deer herd. A combination of better habitat, water,predator control, and transplants. in engineering, sometimes you attach a piece of zinc to a copper pipe. The system has unsolvable corrosion problems, so you put something for the corrosion to eat and let your pipes alone.

5. For these coyotes to be scavenging every caucus shows there are still way to many coyotes, and there ought to be a super intensive coyote control program the next five months. This study isn't to see if coyotes or predators kill deer. The objective as I understand it is to see if Deer can be transplanted, and increase deer populations
Sorry, the old scientist comes out in me once in a while, and these are some facts to consider.

Thanks for the persistent hard work. Very valuable information, we are not doing a study. We are getting data to design, engineer, build and sustain abundant deer herds!

Don Peay

 

[mtlion]

Sacrificial anode theory. in engineering, sometimes you attach a piece of zinc to a copper pipe. The system has unsolvable corrosion problems, so you put something for the corrosion to eat and let your pipes alone.

Sorry, the old scientist comes out in me once in a while, and these are some facts to consider.

This guy is dumber than a sack of hammers.

 

[Oak]

This guy is dumber than a sack of hammers.

Hey, that wasn't my quote.

 

[TheTone]

That email is craziness. Why wouldn't coyotes be scavenging deer carcasses?

Regardless its an interesting study and sometimes we have to revisit topics or ideas and see the results for ourselves.

 

[Big Fin]

Just when you thnk the guy has crawled under a rock and done society a great benefit, he emerges and uses his welfare-funded platform to prove why he and his group is the laughing stock of the entire western hunting world.

What I wouldn't have paid for him to make good on the debate he challenged me to.

I have pitty for the Utah hunter. Their agency, their legislature, and their way of viewing wildlife has been hijacked by this mindset. Their funding is being wasted on schizophrenic ideas such as this; spending millions on coyote bounties when the evidence shows it has no benefit; and tossing money to another DKP organization so the President can pay 2/3 of the state welfare money to his personal consulting business.

A sorry state of affairs.

 

[MKotur325]

For the sake of the deer... Can he Please leave Science to the Scientists?!?!? Wow, seriously... Lets transplant Deer so that Coyotes can eat them? If it didn't work the first time, what, are they going to keep trying until it does? That is by definition Insanity!

Also... Just because carcasses are scavenged on doesn't mean a thing! In my hunting areas if you shoot a deer, you can go back the next day and the gut ball is GONE! There are coyotes, not tons; but enough to clean up after things. If I were a coyote, I'd happily get fat off all the newly dead deer. Why work for dinner when you can just drive up to the closest fast food burger stand!

 

[Devil Diver Down]

Good to see the transplant mortality rates are so close (43% to 10%) of those of resident deer. $250k to fund mule deer take-out coyote food. Yes, that sounds like a good plan.

 

[bigeasygator]

My opinion? The guy has TERRIBLE grammar and spelling skills. Though I guess that's more of a fact than an opinion...

 

[MKotur325]

My opinion? The guy has TERRIBLE grammar and spelling skills. Though I guess that's more of a fact than an opinion...

Yup... Gotta say, it is the first time I've heard of a Mule Deer Caucus! That would be an interesting meeting to sit in on

 

[stillkickin]

$250k to fund mule deer take-out coyote food. Yes, that sounds like a good plan.

But, it is an easy ask for fundraising $$$ from the well meaning, uninformed crowd.

 

[1_pointer]

This is ground breaking stuff. Screw the traditional scientific method, just keep changing the experiment until you get the non-statistically valide answer you want!

Instead of taking the advice of Mike Welch, he should have listened to former DWR employee Steve Kearl. At a mule deer meeting when asked for suggestions as to help the deer herds, Mr. Kearl suggested limiting trucks to 2WD and rifles to iron sighted 30-30s. His rationale was when that was all we had to hunt with we had more deer! FWIW, I knew Steve a bit and yes his tongue was firmly planted in his cheek...

If DP asked me what a good start to the fix would be I'd suggest tighter zoning laws in DWR identified deer winter range along with killing a whole heck of a lot of junipers!! At least to the tune of 30K acres a year... Dozers and chains need to be brought out of mothballs!

 

[Big Sky]

Every time I read stuff like this I hit my knees and thank the good Lord I no longer live in Utah. I moved away from there, nearly 20 years ago, and there hasn't been a single second, of a single hour, of a single day that I've regretted it.

 

[TheTone]

Instead of taking the advice of Mike Welch, he should have listened to former DWR employee Steve Kearl. At a mule deer meeting when asked for suggestions as to help the deer herds, Mr. Kearl suggested limiting trucks to 2WD and rifles to iron sighted 30-30s. His rationale was when that was all we had to hunt with we had more deer! FWIW, I knew Steve a bit and yes his tongue was firmly planted in his cheek...

Tongue in cheek or not, he probably has a point. A unit my grandpa used to hunt was a 2 deer limit, over the counter; but at the time when the gravel road ended it was time to put it into 4wd and hope for the best. Very few 4wd vehicles at the time. The unit now is a tough to draw controlled hunt, with pavement and good gravel roads, lots of gated old logging roads, and jet boat access as well. This doesn't take into account the changes in hunting equipment that have taken place as well. We've become much better at killing than our forefathers.

 

[jryoung]

(Right click, add to favorites, "more SFW/BGF dumbf!#/ery" folder)

Just so I can keep track of this "stuff"

 

[schmalts]

Good grief. Deer are prolific breeders and to think transplantation is the answer to the problem shows how much money was wasted on his "consulting" fees

 

[Ben Lamb]

This reminds me of an episode of Big Bang Theory where Sheldon states that evolution is a scientific fact. His mother's response was "& that's your opinion."

This guy damages us all when he opens his mouth.