Yeti GOBOX Collection

Black Hills Whitetail

Rooster52

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From what I have read,the whitetails in the Black Hills are making a recovery after the die off acouple years ago.
talked to the warden and some of the hunters that go there every year and things look positive.
Beautiful area to spend time !!
 
The die off was from mountain lions, we still have mountain lions, but it is getting better.
 
All anecdotal evidence, but lion numbers went up, deer and elk numbers went down. Lion quota increased, lion harvest increased, deer and elk numbers also increased. Now the lion harvest is pretty static and deer, elk and sheep are coming back. I'm sure the numbers are buried deep inside some GFP public document.
 
there are lions in the black hills but to say they are a main source of the decline is IMHO far from the truth. I have a friend that has a big chunk by alladin. we went over a couple years to hunt/run lions and the density of lions was very low. prime country, few lions
 
Bluetounge is what I have been told was and still is a problem. But the population is stll growing.
 
Bluetounge is what I have been told was and still is a problem. But the population is stll growing.

Not sure if EHD is still a problem, we will see late next summer. The population is rebounding. There are still plenty of deer in the Hills, I suggest putting in for the draw.
 
The only thing that stops me from a rifle hunt in the Wyoming black hills is the season dates.Starting November 1st , is just to late for me. Maybe someday.
 
There was a die-off. If you want to attribute that to lions, fine. I will go with the EHD outbreak if we are discussing whitetails from the OP.

Do you think 85% of all calves are killed by lions or do you think the collaring itself and handling may contribute.

I read a little on the study, but will have to review it again. Thanks for bringing it up.
 
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I couldn't find it on a quick one minute search. Do you have a link? I do believe you that it exists, I just can't find it right now.
 
It looks like 87.5% of mortalities were attributed to predation. Overall calf survival was 75%. Big difference from what was stated above.
 
There was a die-off. If you want to attribute that to lions, fine. I will go with the EHD outbreak if we are discussing whitetails from the OP.

Do you think 85% of all calves are killed by lions or do you think the collaring itself and handling may contribute.

I read a little on the study, but will have to review it again. Thanks for bringing it up.

No, I do not think 85% of all calves are killed by mountain lions. In 2010-2013 when the "die off" occurred the mountain lions were out of control. Since then, between hunting, dispersal (moving outside the BHNF) and lower game numbers the lion population has declined. We are now in recovery but IMO we will never see the number of game animals that we had in the early 2000's.
I could not find the study but here is an article about it.

http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/ca...cle_25da8a3c-9a19-5dcf-a9de-d056c4b9e6b3.html

. I was wrong with the numbers 16 were confirmed mountain lion kills 2 other were killed by predators but could not be confirmed they were from lions. 1 out of 19 collared calves lived.(95% mortality that year for that study.)

Here is a quote from the article that shows how out of control the lions were

"For the last two years, helicopter crews using tranquilizer darts on cow elk for research work in the park reported lion attacks on elk shortly after they were shot with the darts. In 2011, a lion killed a tranquilized cow before the helicopter crew could get to her. This year, the helicopter hovered between a lion and an elk and scared off the cat."
 
I will have to spend some time reading the info provided by mtmiller and oak. Back to whitetails.
 

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