drahthaar
Active member
Ouch!!! Can't believe how you guys are getting pounded out there.
How are the elk and mulies?
How are the elk and mulies?
Tough Winter
- Thread starter Nemont
- Start date
xrayts
New member
It would be interesting to know how long the train was. It's not common, but some trains are as long as 10000 feet. They would need to accept some responsibility if that were the case. If they operated shorter trains, they could stop in shorter distances. Either way, it's unfortunate for the Engineers, because they don't make those decisions.
It's a fact of life in a hard winter. Those tracks, and often times the roads, are the only place where there is no snow, so the critters congregate there to get some respite.
Damned sad situation.
mdunc8
Well-known member
I wasn't there, but I have a feeling the animals were congregated pretty closely and would have gotten run over either way.
M
MN Public Hunter
Guest
This is intersting to me. They have some of ther best eye's and see 1 human coming and they run for it, but they see, hear and feel a train and just stand there?
I sure hope they took the ones that were salvagable to a food bank to feed people, not sure if that's possilbe though.
I sure hope they took the ones that were salvagable to a food bank to feed people, not sure if that's possilbe though.
recoil junky
New member
DUOH!
Antelope have one thing going for them, they can run. I think when winter comes to you folks up north the goats some of them head south because our goat numbers increase dramatically after hunting season.
No, they really do.
RJ
Antelope have one thing going for them, they can run. I think when winter comes to you folks up north the goats some of them head south because our goat numbers increase dramatically after hunting season.
No, they really do.
RJ
Breaks Runner
New member
5*F right now up here and its been snowing and blowing the last 24 hours. Looks like another 10 to 12 inches. Had 3' drifts in the driveway last night when we got back from Helena. Blizzard conditions all the way from Great Falls to here. Some of the worst I've ever driven through.
MTGunner
Well-known member
Might be time to be a conservationist and not put in for a 2011 'loper tag. I can shoot two WT does and just let the antelope rebuild their numbers. I do enjoy antelope steaks. But, if their numbers are in trouble, I can eat venison. What think you all? MTG
drahthaar
Active member
Never killed a lope personally. I would imagine FWP will adjust the draw to accomodate the crap that has hit the fan over there. One would hope.
Nemont
Well-known member
As of today, for the season, we have had a total of 79.8 inches of snow and it is still snowing (that is 61 inches above normal). We have had 5 feet of snow since Dec. 1st. It will only get harder for the critters as Feb. arrives and we could get even a bigger dump of snow.
Getting into my house is like walking through a tunnel.
Nemont
Getting into my house is like walking through a tunnel.
Nemont
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Dinkshooter
Well-known member
And I still have grass in my yard. To crazy.
shoots-straight
Well-known member
It was 60* F here night before last, down to 16* right now and suppose to drop to -2* by tomorrow. It's been OK for the critters here so far. The winter range had lost all snow on south and southwest facing slopes. We'll be good if nothing to sever breaks out.
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rosco
New member
Sad to hear..We were shaping up for another hard winter down here too. But after a few weeks of subzero and lots of snow, we had rain for two days(never seen that before this time of year), really cleared the snow out..just in time I'd say.
twodot
New member
Snowed here all last nite and today. The county came and dug us out a few days ago allowing us the first trip down the road in 10 or 11 days. Now we got about 7 inches of fresh stuff over the crust. Had a group of right at 60 mule deer walking down the road this afternoon trying to stay out of the deep stuff I guess. I have never seen a group of mulies of even half that number around here. 2 bucks with antler in the group. Whitetails down along the river seem to be having a better time of it, but today a bunch of flood water came thru and broke up and ran over the ice. Kinda wierd to have sub zero temp with water rising and running over like spring thaw. I like bad weather but this is proving to be a pain in the ass with all the crust and depths from ankle deep to waist deep. Just ain't condusive for much other than reloading.
sweetnectar
New member
Holy smokes!
I checked back on this thread and seems I hurt some feelings. No offence intended shoots straight and others. Based on my drawing stats for speed goats over the past 5 years (never drawn) I feel I'm not out anything anyway. And I agree, Ya it sucks for everyone.
I didn't mean for folks to get all emotional over me trying to make some fun out of a bad situation. I'm sure this will mean more people not having a chance to hunt.
I checked back on this thread and seems I hurt some feelings. No offence intended shoots straight and others. Based on my drawing stats for speed goats over the past 5 years (never drawn) I feel I'm not out anything anyway. And I agree, Ya it sucks for everyone. I didn't mean for folks to get all emotional over me trying to make some fun out of a bad situation. I'm sure this will mean more people not having a chance to hunt.
shoots-straight
Well-known member
Don't sweat it, sweet.
Nemont
Well-known member
A video
Video of the Story
Video of the Story
Winter takes toll on northeastern Montana wildlife
By BRETT FRENCH Of The Gazette Staff The Billings Gazette | Posted: Monday, January 31, 2011 12:00 am | (11) Comments
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DAVID GRUBBS/Gazette Staff
A doe antelope lies in a depression dug in a field near Glasgow last week. This winter's near-record snowfall is covering the animal's traditional winter food -- sagebrush. Antelope won't raid haystacks to eat.
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GLASGOW — The doe antelope had dug its own grave.
Weakened by months of cold, its usual foods covered in snow, it lay in a 3-foot-deep depression in the snow. Only its head was visible as it warily watched a car stopped along a nearby road. It was too weak to stand and flee.
“It's just a symptom of the severity of the winter,” said Kelvin Johnson, a wildlife biologist for Fish, Wildlife and Parks in Glasgow. He said the doe would be lucky to live one more day.
Train casualties
It has been a grim winter for wildlife. Earlier, Johnson had to help shoot 50 antelope that were injured after a train ran into a portion of a herd gathered on the railroad tracks near Hinsdale. Another 220 antelope were killed in the initial impact, their bodies scattered for more than a mile and left to feed scavengers.The antelope gather on the tracks because they are free of snow. Off the tracks, the snow can vary from 4 to 8 feet deep. To walk through it, the antelope move in single file, trading places breaking trail, much as flying geese trade leaders.
To feed, the antelope and deer have to paw through the snow. Johnson said the landscape would look like a crater-pocked moonscape to anyone flying over — hundreds of holes scraped into the ground as the wildlife seek food.
“Can you imagine having to paw seven times for a nibble?” Johnson said.
Tough winter
Across northeastern Montana, continuous snow and cold have left antelope weakened and dying. Whitetail deer swarm haystacks like flies on meat. Carcasses of dead antelope and deer litter the hillsides and valleys. Only the golden and bald eagles, magpies and crows are getting fat as they scavenge the animal corpses.
“It's difficult out there, and they've been doing it since November,” Johnson said.
Bad winters are common across the rolling prairie of northeastern Montana, only miles from the Canadian border. But this winter has been harsher than normal, with snow coming earlier and heavier.
“We're well on the way to having a record-breaking winter,” said Mark Sullivan, FWP's Glasgow-region wildlife manager. “It's tough on wildlife, no doubt.”
It will also be tough on hunters who are likely to see licenses reduced for antelope and mule deer.
“This has really been the land of plenty for mule deer,” Johnson said. “Everyone's been coming out here. Probably people need to make another plan this year. We are going to lose a lot of deer.”
Fewer licenses
As Johnson explains it, much of the mule deer fawn crop was lost in the winter of 2003-04 that set a record for snowfall — nearly 6 feet. Does that were weakened by the winter had few fawns.
“We're missing that age class that would be 6- or 7-year-olds now,” he said. “I'm quite confident we'll see a limited age-class coming out of this.”
The winter also kills bucks that have low fat reserves after the fall breeding season.
“So bucks and fawns are the most susceptible going into winter with low or no fat reserves,” Johnson said. “So we'll likely lose a lot of mature bucks.”
FWP warden Todd Anderson said he already has found dead mule deer so emaciated that no muscle remained along the backbone.
“I saw one buck that looked like it hurt to walk,” said warden Todd Tryan. “He couldn't even hold his head up.”
The migration
Antelope migrate south to avoid such winters, moving through the plains in herds as large as 400 to 500. But man-made obstacles, like fences, can halt their progress. Sometimes in winter they can walk over the top of fences buried in the snow.
The Glasgow area's resident antelope push south to the Missouri River, some crossing Fort Peck Reservoir atop the ice.
In the spring, they'll attempt to return, but fences may be a greater obstacle to movement after snow has melted. And after ice has broken up, antelope sometimes try to swim across the reservoir.
The antelope around Glasgow now are those that have migrated south from Canada, taking over grazing lands that the resident herds have already abandoned. Moving 100 to 200 miles in deep snow is no easy task. Fawns are typically the first to die. Counts from a difficult winter in 2008 showed the antelope numbers dipping 20 percent, with most of the dead being fawns, Johnson said.
“It shows that migration works,” he said, keeping alive breeding adults while sacrificing the young.
In Sheridan County, a haven for pheasant hunters, Fish, Wildlife and Parks has begun allowing landowners to feed birds, according to Sullivan, the wildlife manager. The department allows feeding when 90 percent of the natural occurring foods are unavailable. Landowners are reimbursed for mileage and feed costs.
“Quite frankly, birds can spring back really fast if the habitat conditions are good,” Sullivan said. “And we should see good habitat conditions this spring. They should have good nesting cover.”
With two more months of snow and cold ahead, the danger for wildlife is far from over.
“It's just one of those tough winters that we go through up here,” said Pat Gunderson, Glasgow's FWP supervisor. “But when you're not in the game of animal husbandry it's a little hard to sit back and watch.”
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