Winter kill?

[Rodzilla]

We are having one of the best winters is years for precipitation in California (good for this state); however how is it going in CO, MT, WY? Hearing from friends that I might want to wait on WY this year. Any of you hearing much? I was planning on burning my 10 WY antelope points this year and also burning my 10 CO deer points on a gunnison area deer unit. Sadly I was also considering going to SE Montana for deer this year, hopefully their winter kill is not bad either. i guess it may be too early to tell, still have much of our winter left here (we get most of our precipitation in Feb-April).

 

[macnshana]

Ive read some parts of CO are having a tough winter. Some are feeding the herds. I haven't heard anything about WY and so far here in MT I haven't heard of anything big. I know here in the bitterroot elk and deer are fine. They eat all my hay and the rest of the farms and ranches have been hit. The only ones I know who haven't been hit are those that have fully enclosed barns for their hay. But I guess that's part of living here.

 

[shoots-straight]

It's been one of the toughest winters I've witnessed in the Root for a long time. We really don't see anything like winter for very long so that's not all that bad. I was on the winter range all day yesterday looking for cats and the game are all down and using it. From the tops to the bottoms of the mountains in the area they've pawed through to grass. The good news is there's good green stuff under the snow. We had an exceptional late summer and fall for rains and sunshine after to make for good feed. I've never seen torn up snow like this year. Big herds systematically moving through the the areas. I saw lots of moose too, which is nice. One moose was killed by predators but I couldn't tell for sure, but think a cat did it.

 

[antlerradar]

Fall was great in SE MT. The temps were warm and the moisture exceptional. By the end of Sept there was green grass everywhere. Deer went into winter in great shape. It turned ugly in early Dec and that pretty much held until mid Jan. Deep snow and lots of very cold temperatures. The last few days have been in the 40's. I feel like walking around in shorts. The good news is that the south slopes have started to bare off. The bad news is that the snow everywhere else has settled down to about 10 inches to a foot and a half of slush. When it gets cold again this week the snow is going to turn into a white brick. The coyotes are going to have a field day. No getting around it, there is going to be a better than average winter kill this spring. I am hopeful that with the good fall and if the rest of winter can mellow out it won't be a devastating winter kill.

 

[Rodzilla]

Thanks for the replies guys (good to get some info from folks up there). Crossing my fingers for a mellow end of winter (it seems that every time herds are bouncing back pretty good- old man winter slaps us in the face). Listening to Randy's podcast- I should have never kept my double digit points for so long....

 

[TheDudeAbides]

The antelope fawns are looking pretty bad from Rock Springs to Kemmerer. There is a lot more road kill than usual. I do suspect that there will be a reduction in doe/fawn tags in the area. The bucks still look fine. The advantage the pronghorn bucks have over mule deer is that they rut in September and had plenty of time to get fat before December hit.

Now, there is plenty of time between now and April. Depending on how these two months play out, will depend on the number of animals being killed via winter.

 

[Poke 'Em]

Things are looking a little better up in NE Montana after the warmup the last week and a half or so. You can see the grass poking through in most places, and on some windswept spots the ground is almost bare. Now, the drifts are still very deep, and that's where most of the antelope succumbed 6 years ago, but there's at least a light at the end of the tunnel if we can avoid too much more snow.

 

[el unit]

Just upstream of Wise River, our thermometer hit 50 degrees the last two days. The elk, deer, and antelope along I-15 looked like they had a lot more food to pick at over the last week as snow depth seemed to decrease.

 

[ChrisS]

Now, there is plenty of time between now and April. Depending on how these two months play out, will depend on the number of animals being killed via winter.

Yeah, a tough winter that gets nastier towards spring and prevents green growth just when animals need it most are killers.

 

[antlerradar]

I have found about 10 dead deer so far. Some of them could have been from the mild outbreak of EHD we had this fall but three are bucks that have shed there antlers. They likely died in the last month.

 

[Highwood]

I looked over our area pretty well this past weekend. Deer are doing good considering the very cold and windy past month or so. Sat and Sun was around 50 and sunny, lots of ground showing. The pheasants did not survive the extreme weather. I saw no sign of birds where in past years there would be dozens at this time of year.

 

[Sask hunter]

Winter kill can sure be nasty. Not only are numbers down the next year but a few years from then when those fawns should have been big bucks there is a distinct missing age class. We have two bad winters in three years up here and a bad one three years before that. So far we are are having a good winter here. Hopefully it stays that will be the third easy winter in a row

 

[bluesulphur]

Here's the latest from the WY Game and Fish newsletter :https://wgfd.wyo.gov/News/Cold-temperatures-and-deep-snow-taking-a-toll-on-W

 

[antlerradar]

The latest from SE Montana is a few more inches of snow and -15 this morning.

 

[Nameless Range]

I think this is going to be the worst winter kill in my adult lifetime. Just last night I had my radio on scan and listened to two different calls, where police needed to people's houses to put down or remove a deer from yards because the deeer had fallen and were too weak to get up.

It's been kind of eerie watching specific groups of deer that I see daily dwindle. Doesn't mean those members I'm not seeing have died, but the dwindling is pretty widespread. Snow in the forecast on Monday.

 

[sbhooper]

Here's the latest from the WY Game and Fish newsletter :https://wgfd.wyo.gov/News/Cold-temperatures-and-deep-snow-taking-a-toll-on-W

I don't do much in Wyoming, now, but it would be a bit disheartening if I was looking to burn points next year. Some of these areas have really never come back from prior harsh conditions. It is pretty hard to out-guess what nature is going to do. We are only spectators.

 

[Ben Long]

NW MT is bracing for another blizzard on top of a pretty stout snowpack. Most snow I've seen since the Blue Snow of 95/96, which totally slammed the deer herd. March is the cruelest month. Not looking good, IMO.

 

[antlerradar]

I found two fawns today that the coyotes killed last night. Weak young deer and very hard crusty snow makes it easy for coyotes.

 

[Chucknduck]

At least in Montana if there is a big die off fwp will still issue thousands of doe tags. Then realize numbers are low a few years later

 

[mtmuley]

There has been some elk that died here in the Root from eating landscape plants in people's yards. Some sort of Yew plant apparently. I know they love my Aspens. mtmuley