Utahs Deer Population

[Copper]

What is the number one reason why Utah's deer population so low. Everybody else seems to say lions just curious to hear from people that actually know what is out there.

[R.M.]

[Copper]

the book cliffs would be an exception.

[Bplott]

From what I see vehical, unknown sickness, and coyotes...are the 3 main problems and possibly to many elk....basically the compatition for food even with livestock...

[timothy]

I agree with Bplott, i dont know about sickness though. I see lots of new dead deer everyday on the roads from morgan where my inlaws live to roy where i live. its a huge problem, then you have the coyotes.. I was taking some hay up onto a dryfarm for some livestock and there was about 15 deer eating some left over hay around mid-day. there was 2 coyotes circling them waiting for their chance. when they saw me on the sled they took off, i always carry a rifle for such occasions and tried to catch them. i jumped off and had just enough time to aim and pull the trigger at a 150 yard broadside shot. nothing happened though forgot about that darn saftey!!

[Copper]

I will have to agree with bplott that it is a combination of things but i think the main reason is the elk. Why because in 1975 we had approximately 20000 head and a good deer population. The elk population has exploded since then and then leveled off around 60000 in the 90's and the deer went down from there. I simply dont think we have enough winter range to support both. Biologist for the DWR told me that a elk is equal to 3 deer so that would be an increase 120,000 deer.

[huntfish8]

Around here there is a lot of farm land. and you can set up your spotting scope and look and look. and what i have notised if you have 1 or 2 yotes it is hard for them to take deer down I have seen over a dozen times deer chasing yotes. I like to take kids and elderly people out deer hunting i had this one kid and I went down this one area of the farm where i know some of them bed down for the day. and about 10 min of sitting there 2 yotes came hallin ass across the field with a nice 4x4 right on there heals. but i have also seen 5 yotes take down a fawn in the winter. i think a yote will only kill deer if its wonded or if it is a hard winter and no other food.

[Conejos]

I think everyone is right it is a combination of alot of things. However I have seen coyotes make a big impact on the deer population. Deer are just no where near as aggressive at defending their young as elk are. Poachers take more than you think and elk herds do make a big differance even though they eat different things. Where I grew up in S. Colorado elk moved down into the riverbottoms and farmland in the 90's and the deer herd dropped drastically. In 2005 they sold a bunch of cow elk tags and damn near wiped out the elk down there on the river bottoms. The deer herd seemed to bounce back immediately. Who knows! but i am tired of wondering were all the deer have gone and think maybe survival of the fittest has taken place.

[timothy]

The coyotes dont do the damage to the herds by killing the big bucks. they target the fawns aggressivley. That is where the damage comes from. The elk without a dougt affect the deer.

[dandavidson]

I think the damage is done in the spring on the fawns and elk Calfs, I have witness Bear and coyote grabbing them, I have bee going to some of the same areas for 25 years and the deer herds are way off, The goverment employee i talked with was thinking the cattle are taking all the sage brush out which has happen a bit, I have pictures from back then and it is a lot less sage brush, but the bear population is off the map and I think that is a huge part of it. Bears are eating machines and in the spring they raise havoc on the newborns.

D

[timothy]

exactly there is only so much to go around and we keep expanding into their feeding areas making less and less. the only thing to do is improve the road conditions for wildlife and start killing more coyotes.

[cory]

[Bplott]

There have been many and multipul studies done and there is a very slim cahnce bears affect deer population if I remeber right it is like 3% over a 10 year study...bookcliff, lasal ,sanjuan are utahs highest density bear and deer populations.....so that shooots there bear impacting deer idea in the foot!! Automobiles are number one problem...depending on area coyotes elk desease...as houndsmen in this state we should be blasting every coyote we can see.....our lion are taking the blame for the coyotes....here's another one for ya....how many fawns or sick deer do eagles get??? Never once has eagles been put into dwr equation...many may not realize this but our lion population hit an all time low about 5 years before the deer did!!! Cronic wasting desease??? Who knows?? Or was it the dwr and sfw wanting more elk and bighorn sheep oh wait can't forget more buffalo.....maybe the deer population went ingnored for to long??? Food for thought my friends

[klane58]

Three factors Winter kills, predators and Road kill.
There is not much we can do about the weather or the roads so that only leaves one place to work on.

[Copper]

Only one place to work on?

Winter kills could come from a number of things Elk being the newest and biggest factor in my area.

What about the buck to doe ratio I think it is off due to the fact that most of there bucks are immature and can not handle all the does we need mature bucks for our breeding stock.