NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/581251
NOVEMBER 2015 • NEBRASKAland 33 nonresidents, who purchased more than one-third of the regular permits sold in the unit in 2014, the highest percentage of all units, and have been happy to add antlerless permits to fill their freezers. The number of mule deer does taken on these permits, however, was much higher than anticipated by biologists. Mule deer doe harvest had averaged 320 from 1996 to 2003, jumped to 691 in 2004 and 735 in 2005, and remained above 300 until 2013. Buck harvest in the unit peaked at 1,021 in 2007, but fell to a modern low of 581 last year. Seeing the decline, biologists implemented new regulations in 2011 that prohibited the take of antlerless mule deer on all state and federal land in the region. With little change in deer numbers, in part due to poor recruitment caused by drought in 2012, they expanded that restriction to the entire unit in 2014, cutting the antlerless mule deer harvest to just 48. Biologists believe CWD and EHD losses may be higher in the Pine Ridge than in other units. And mountain lions, a predator that in recent years has established a resident population and is found in higher numbers here than elsewhere, are no doubt contributing to mule deer mortality, but to what extent, no one is certain. On the other end of the spectrum is the Frenchman management unit in the southwestern corner. Disease doesn't appear to be as big of a problem in this region, and mule deer are doing well. More than 2,200 mule deer were harvested in the unit in 2014, nearly double the next highest unit. That includes about 350 does, the most of any unit. Many of the does came from a subunit in the western portion of the Frenchman, where mule deer are doing so well that antlerless season choice permits are being issued. The creation of that subunit followed a unit-wide cut in doe permits in 2004, which helped the population grow and boosted the number of mature bucks in the harvest to 90 percent, many of which reach trophy quality. A pair of young mule deer bucks spar playfully in a pasture near the Snake River in Cherry County. Mature mule deer bucks occasionally fight to the death in an effort to establish dominance over the herd during the rut.