Kansas mule deer

[reallyoldman]

I think another factor is gazillions of predators. There are lions, bobcats and a ton of coyotes. The destruction of the habitat by removing most of the trees, olives and other brush in the name of improvement has been disastrous. My experience has been in the Swanson Lake area in NE and along the South Fork of the Republican River. The turkey numbers must be about 5% of what they were just a couple of years ago. I was asked to trap on the farm I hunted on and could not believe the number of Possem, skunk, bagers and coons. I am not a very good coyote trapper but I still got over 25 .

 

[Snowbuster101]

Predators are definitely an issue. I saw very few fawns during our hunt this year. KDWP stated that mule deer fawns have about 25% survival rate which is extremely low.

 

[brocksw]

I know this thread is old, but wanted to open up the discussion of the mule deer population crises in KS. The last 10 years we have seen populations plummet in the area we hunt and from other research I have done this is pretty much state wide. Areas that once had 5-10 deer in each section now have none. We are basically down to about 20 mule deer in a 5 mile radius. There are some whitetail scattered around, but they seem to be very cyclical in our area in NW KS. It seems like the drought in 2012 really started the decline and along with that came the EHD outbreak. The state has cut the number of tags and has eliminated the either species doe tag (bad idea from the beginning), but numbers continue to decline. The farming practices have definitely changed as well. Less milo and more corn, little CRP or pasture ground remain, removal of trees and fence lines, all have undoubtedly contributed to this issue. Just wondering what others thoughts are about the current situation.

Mule deer aren't generally affected by EHD that severely. Not saying there was no impact from EHD, but I know NW Kansas has a lot of CWD.