MT Deer

[Deleted member 22670]

I have done a decent amount of research regarding deer/elk populations all across the western US. The one piece of info that I can't seem to track down is what MT's current whitetail and mulie populations are. I know elk is right around 140k. But I have scoured the MT F&G website and cannot find anything. What's the big secret? Anyone know these numbers?

 

[Art Vandeley]

I'm not sure where you can find that, but I know the whitetails in the Eastern half of the state have been hit very hard by disease. There was a lot of dead deer around last fall.

 

[have gun will travel]

I just saw these numbers on the mfwp site, but I can't remember where. I will say the numbers were lower then I expected.

 

[Deleted member 22670]

Yeah, I am having a hard time tracking it down. The main reason I was curious is because I know MT was eliminating almost all of the doe licenses this year. So I was looking for some historical population trends that show a decline.

Here in CO, our mule deer population was at approximately 600,000 animals in 2004. Ten years later, we are sitting at a hair over 400,000. Thats a third of the deer population gone in ten years. I can't believe we still shoot does in this state......

 

[shoots-straight]

Historically the number I always heard was around 400,000. I'd be really surprise if we have half of that now. I don't think they survey whitetails.

 

[8andcounting]

I'm not sure where you can find that, but I know the whitetails in the Eastern half of the state have been hit very hard by disease. There was a lot of dead deer around last fall.

Yet the fwp is still selling over the counter whitetail tags in all the 700 HD's , I believe residents can get 2 . That's overdoing it I think....

 

[Ben Long]

I wonder how accurate these sweeping population estimates are, anyway. A lot of extrapolation. I would assume a wide margin of error. In NW MT my sense is that deer numbers are still down relative to 10 years ago, but edging back up. I've been told that some Fisher River mule deer doe/fawn counts are encouraging.