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Montana Dead deer

In lieu of what appears to be a horrid year for deer in our state the big question is what are the powers to be going to do about it? Probably jack $%&@ .
well based on the current status of forum discussions...murder the shit out of them in an 11 week season, issue extra tags in small units, OTC B tags, add outfitter sponsored tags
 
well based on the current status of forum discussions...murder the shit out of them in an 11 week season, issue extra tags in small units, OTC B tags, add outfitter sponsored tags

But this year has been particularly hard on game populations due to Mother Nature. It is my opinion this is a tipping point which absolutely cannot be ignored.
 
Mthuntr
"I've been told that's why velvet sticks...no testosterone from no testicles."



I've been told that....that is how you can tell the married bucks from the bachelors 😆 🤣
 
Testicular abnormalities can also cause retained velvet, but is not related to abnormal velvet shedding in EHD. Testicular issues cause hormonal abnormalities. EHD causes circulatory abnormalities. Velvet shedding anomalies may occur due to both.
 
They killed a buck in city limits the other day here in baker that tested positive for CWD
 
Mthuntr said:
well based on the current status of forum discussions...murder the shit out of them in an 11 week season, issue extra tags in small units, OTC B tags, add outfitter sponsored tags


But this year has been particularly hard on game populations due to Mother Nature. It is my opinion this is a tipping point which absolutely cannot be ignored.
So you guys aren’t hunting deer this year then?
 
Mthuntr said:
well based on the current status of forum discussions...murder the shit out of them in an 11 week season, issue extra tags in small units, OTC B tags, add outfitter sponsored tags



So you guys aren’t hunting deer this year then?


Haven’t spent a single day out looking for deer this year
 
If EHD results in an increase in velvet bucks and velvet bucks don't have typically have testicles there is a correlative theory.

Where's your proof otherwise Mr Epidemiologist?! :unsure: LOL
“The EHD infection apparently caused lesions on their testicles, which then affected testosterone levels and ultimately antler growth.” From your article you referenced.

https://www.dfw.state.or.us/wildlife/health_program/EHD/Epizootic_QASheet.pdf Question number 2 on this page.
No mention of testes just up and leaving in both those articles.


Cryptorchidism is a condition that occurs when the buck’s testicles, for whatever reason, remain in the abdominal cavity and fail to drop into the scrotum at the proper time. During extreme cases, they never descend. In other instances, when they do drop, they often appear small and malformed. Literally translated, cryptorchid means “hard-to-find testes.” From the article above.

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From my buck I shot this year. 🤷🏻‍♂️ I should’ve done some more investigating in the cavity, but he didn’t have any nuts. No testosterone to regulate his hormones to get him into season. My guess was the missing testes explained the velvet in late October. He still had blood in his horns.

So while I do agree that there are a lot of bucks taken in velvet this year and last I believe there is a distinct difference between a buck surviving the fever and a bucks nuts not dropping. Correlation does not equal causation.
 
In lieu of what appears to be a horrid year for deer in our state the big question is what are the powers to be going to do about it? Probably jack $%&@ .
I’m really not sure if I’ll shoot a deer if I see one.it’s horrible this year,maybe a 50% cut in tags for non and locals for a couple years!give em a break.
 
I’m really not sure if I’ll shoot a deer if I see one.it’s horrible this year,maybe a 50% cut in tags for non and locals for a couple years!give em a break.
So I didn't see one whitetail on prime river bottom because of EHD . What really alarms me is how few deer are visible simply driving to and from....across the state.
 
Up here on the Hi Line I'm seeing plenty of deer and plenty of blood on Hwy 2 (though maybe a little less of that than normal thankfully). I am hunting the low wet areas for pheasants with two dogs. I think I can say with some certainty that blue tongue is not a problem up here this year. So far the dogs have only found one suspicious bone pile. It still had antlers (nothing great) so probably not a gutless method leftover. On the refuge they have found none. A few years back during the last epidemic I couldn't go two hundred yards in there without the dogs tripping on a bone pile. No big game hunting on the refuge so they were all definitely blue tongue casualties. I am concerned about how long this warm spell has lasted. I was seeing some bugs out over the weekend and it's been pretty much windless for most of two weeks. Sure made up for that the last two days though!

From a management perspective I'm not sure what can be done at this point. The regs are set in the spring and blue tongue generally doesn't show up till late summer. I remember during the last epidemic FWP was encouraging hunters to bring in tags for a refund, especially out of staters. I talked to several non residents that year who were furious because FWP didn't tell them earlier so they could cancel their trips. FWP didn't know the extent of the problem earlier. However, as I recall FWP didn't make the refund offer till late in hunting season. Curious that I don't recall seeing anything about a major blue tongue problem in the weekly blat emails I get from FWP.
 
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