Increase in whitetail deer worries wildlife officials
By Charlie Meyers / Denver Post columnist
The time-worn map that adorns a wall at the Fort Collins office of the Colorado Division of Wildlife is notable for historic insights into the agency as it existed more than 60 years ago.
In displaying the relative simplicity of the organization and its facilities in the 1930s, the map speaks volumes about the evolution of a wildlife agency whose reach has grown exponentially.
The old map also illustrates another trend, one that ranks as a mounting concern for big-game managers. Two small dots - one in the extreme southeast corner of the state, another where the Arkansas River meets the Kansas border - denote the only known presence of whitetail deer in the state.
Today's chart shows a far different picture. Expanding at an accelerated rate, whitetails now are common throughout Colorado's eastern plains and also have made a significant incursion west of the Continental Divide.
"There's been quite an expansion. People are picking them up all over the Western Slope," said Gary Miller, DOW's mammal research leader.
A decade ago, two Denver-area anglers were shocked to see two whitetail does on a visit to Rams Horn Lake, in the Flat Tops west of Yampa.
In the years since, reports of whitetails in western Colorado have become almost commonplace as well as cause for alarm. The Colorado Wildlife Commission listed the expansion of whitetails west of Interstate 25 among its prime concerns in the strategic plan released in 2002.
The commission this year also addressed the growing numbers of whitetail deer on the eastern plains by issuing permits for special hunts exclusively for that species.
"We wanted to keep whitetails from expanding into what had been mule deer territory on the plains without increasing harvest on mule deer," explained Janet George, senior terrestrial biologist for DOW's Northeast Region.
George speculated that the success of the Conservation Reserve Program, with its tall grasses and improved forage, proved particularly beneficial to plains whitetail. But it's the movement into traditional mule deer range in the high country that concerns biologists already worried over a continuing malaise among mule deer and the more recent spread of chronic wasting disease.
John Ellenberger, state big-game manager, reports a sighting two years ago, not far from his Grand Junction office. Other evidence has emerged from locations around Meeker and Craig, as well as long-standing populations in North Park and Middle Park.
The North Park incursion can be explained as part of a continuing migration up the North Platte River drainage; stream corridors are common highways for many animal species. But the presence of whitetails in the Flat Tops and other mountain areas remain more of a mystery.
George, who previously worked as a biologist just west of Denver, reports that a hunter bagged a whitetail deer last year in Golden Gate Canyon. She further recalls seeing a doe with two fawns five or six years ago around Empire. Others have been sighted in South Park near Jefferson.
The spread of whitetail deer in Colorado appears part of a nationwide trend that alarms wildlife managers in many eastern locations. Deer are so numerous in Alabama that hunters are allowed one antlered deer per day during a statewide season that extends nearly two months. Over parts of the state, a doe also may be added to that daily bag.
On a recent visit to western Montana, this writer found whitetail deer thick as rabbits in river bottom thickets. Locals complained frequently of having too many deer.
Here, as in almost every other place along that expanding margin where whitetails and mulies lock horns, whitetails have gained the upper hoof. The reason, Miller revealed, lies in an inherent reproductive advantage.
"Whitetails generally breed at an earlier age and, under good conditions, have a higher rate of twins," he said.
A furtive nature, evidenced by a proclivity for thick cover, also makes whitetails less susceptible to hunting pressure.
Colorado wildlife managers might be surprised at what a comparative survey of today's whitetail population might show, were it superimposed on that old map from the 1930s. But the real shocker might be what it will look like another 60 years from now.
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~110~1487501,00.html
Oak
By Charlie Meyers / Denver Post columnist
The time-worn map that adorns a wall at the Fort Collins office of the Colorado Division of Wildlife is notable for historic insights into the agency as it existed more than 60 years ago.
In displaying the relative simplicity of the organization and its facilities in the 1930s, the map speaks volumes about the evolution of a wildlife agency whose reach has grown exponentially.
The old map also illustrates another trend, one that ranks as a mounting concern for big-game managers. Two small dots - one in the extreme southeast corner of the state, another where the Arkansas River meets the Kansas border - denote the only known presence of whitetail deer in the state.
Today's chart shows a far different picture. Expanding at an accelerated rate, whitetails now are common throughout Colorado's eastern plains and also have made a significant incursion west of the Continental Divide.
"There's been quite an expansion. People are picking them up all over the Western Slope," said Gary Miller, DOW's mammal research leader.
A decade ago, two Denver-area anglers were shocked to see two whitetail does on a visit to Rams Horn Lake, in the Flat Tops west of Yampa.
In the years since, reports of whitetails in western Colorado have become almost commonplace as well as cause for alarm. The Colorado Wildlife Commission listed the expansion of whitetails west of Interstate 25 among its prime concerns in the strategic plan released in 2002.
The commission this year also addressed the growing numbers of whitetail deer on the eastern plains by issuing permits for special hunts exclusively for that species.
"We wanted to keep whitetails from expanding into what had been mule deer territory on the plains without increasing harvest on mule deer," explained Janet George, senior terrestrial biologist for DOW's Northeast Region.
George speculated that the success of the Conservation Reserve Program, with its tall grasses and improved forage, proved particularly beneficial to plains whitetail. But it's the movement into traditional mule deer range in the high country that concerns biologists already worried over a continuing malaise among mule deer and the more recent spread of chronic wasting disease.
John Ellenberger, state big-game manager, reports a sighting two years ago, not far from his Grand Junction office. Other evidence has emerged from locations around Meeker and Craig, as well as long-standing populations in North Park and Middle Park.
The North Park incursion can be explained as part of a continuing migration up the North Platte River drainage; stream corridors are common highways for many animal species. But the presence of whitetails in the Flat Tops and other mountain areas remain more of a mystery.
George, who previously worked as a biologist just west of Denver, reports that a hunter bagged a whitetail deer last year in Golden Gate Canyon. She further recalls seeing a doe with two fawns five or six years ago around Empire. Others have been sighted in South Park near Jefferson.
The spread of whitetail deer in Colorado appears part of a nationwide trend that alarms wildlife managers in many eastern locations. Deer are so numerous in Alabama that hunters are allowed one antlered deer per day during a statewide season that extends nearly two months. Over parts of the state, a doe also may be added to that daily bag.
On a recent visit to western Montana, this writer found whitetail deer thick as rabbits in river bottom thickets. Locals complained frequently of having too many deer.
Here, as in almost every other place along that expanding margin where whitetails and mulies lock horns, whitetails have gained the upper hoof. The reason, Miller revealed, lies in an inherent reproductive advantage.
"Whitetails generally breed at an earlier age and, under good conditions, have a higher rate of twins," he said.
A furtive nature, evidenced by a proclivity for thick cover, also makes whitetails less susceptible to hunting pressure.
Colorado wildlife managers might be surprised at what a comparative survey of today's whitetail population might show, were it superimposed on that old map from the 1930s. But the real shocker might be what it will look like another 60 years from now.
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~110~1487501,00.html
Oak
