Whitetail population decline in eastern WA

[AlaskaHunter]

Just got back from a week of pheasant/quail hunting ...lots of deer carcasses, zero live whitetails seen.
Blue tongue was bad in 2015, looks just as bad in 2021
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/oct/10/deadly-wildlife-disease-continues-to-ravage-deer-p/

 

[Irrelevant]

Combine that with the harsh winter we're having and it doesn't bode well.

Severe winter, diseases have biologists concerned about regional wildlife populations

Recent snow and cold weather have biologists worrying about how regional wildlife will fare, particularly after being hit hard by two deadly disease outbreaks this summer.

www.spokesman.com

Also interesting that EHD deaths were documented in both elk and bighorns along with both deer species (per the article).

 

[Bigjay73]

 

[johnp]

Wow , talk about a double whammy. That photo is crazy. It seems like it would take a long time for a herd to recover from this stuff, but sometimes they recover amazingly fast.

 

[Irrelevant]

Wow , talk about a double whammy. That photo is crazy. It seems like it would take a long time for a herd to recover from this stuff, but sometimes they recover amazingly fast.

Here in Washington we practice to "no recovery" management strategy (at least for mule deer).

 

[Irrelevant]

View attachment 208622

I've told several people this, but we live just west of there, and had over 3' in 24 hrs. That day about 2pm we watched 7 deer lope down the county road, down canyon, stopping traffic as they went, there was nowhere else for them to go.

Then we have this: