Posted on 12/17/2016 6:26:59 AM PST by BenLurkin
Anyone who has visited a national park or hiked the forests and shrub lands of the West has likely encountered mule deer. Mule deer range west of the Missouri River and are smaller than white-tailed deer, which are more common in the East.
They can be seen in most of Colorado, in the Yosemite Valley, along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and in the foothills of Los Angeles. Mule deer are often unafraid of humans in areas such as these where hunting is prohibited and interactions are common.
Mountain lions—also known as cougars—take a particular liking to mule deer. Wolves, coyotes and bears also prey on the species. But natural predation is not seen as the leading cause of mule deer declines in Colorado.
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Colorado's plan calls for the killing of up to 15 mountain lions and 25 black bears each year for the next three years using cage traps, culvert traps, foot snares and hunting dogs. The $4.5 million wildlife management plan would then be followed by a six-year study to see how the deer population responds.
There is concern that the CPW's decision is driven by money and a desire to favor hunting, which generates $693 million in annual economic benefits in northwest Colorado alone. Last year, 34,000 mule deer were taken legally by hunters. The CPW gets 90 percent of its revenue from hunting and fishing licenses.
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Mountain lions are a game animal in Colorado. Even though CPW says it has no idea of the population of the species in the state, it allowed the killing of 467 big cats during the 2014-2015 hunting season. Many argue that killing a few more is not the answer.
(Excerpt) Read more at ecowatch.com ...
I don’t think I care for this plan.
Everything I read claims Mule Deer and White tailed are about the same size.
The Mulies we had in eastern Washington were much bigger than Whitetails on the west side.
The author shows his ignorance. Mule deer are not “smaller than white-tailed deer”. The two species are about the same size, with lots of local variations.
Yes, it would make more sense to have private hunters thin the predator populations. Why have the state pay for something that private parties will pay the state to do?
I stopped reading right there.
They would do better by stopping the re-introduction of wolves throughout the west.
And pay a high price I would bet.
“I have (yet another) dumb question: Why not just let the hunters hunt the lions and bears? “
A PERFECT example of how government works. Letting hunters do the job for free; means no government bureaucrats would have jobs.
Neither do I.
Friggan Bears do more killing of the deer than the cats ever will. Bears will follow the does just before they drop the fawns and then get the fawns.
Between that and wolves, the white tail deer population in the UP of Michigan has dropped. I imagine it is the same with the Mule Deer.
One other..how about these geniuses start clear cutting some of the aspen stands so the deer have more browse?
“Yes, it would make more sense to have private hunters thin the predator populations. Why have the state pay for something that private parties will pay the state to do?”
My County Forest Preserve District pays a “professional” hunter thousand of dollars annually to cull the local deer population. They close the Preserve on days he’s “working”.
When I attended a meeting of the Board and suggested they hold a lottery for bow hunters for a fee they all looked at me like I had 3 heads.
L
Stopped reading. Yup. With ya. Generally, in Montana, in both sexes, adult mule deer are noticeably larger than whitetails. I’ve butchered enough of them to know. Granted, a yearling mule deer might be the same size as an adult whitetail, but . . . you can’t trust any article that gets a fact like so wrong.
One of the arguments against gun control is that guns are necessary for hunting and hunting is a more humane method of keeping the ungulate (deer, elk, moose) populations in check than starvation and disease.
The anti-gunners really don’t have an answer to that argument.
So they decided to get rid of the ungulate populations.
That is why they reintroduced wolves.
You aren’t going to find any anti-gun people out in the woods watching the wolves scamper and play.
They want the guns gone so they can impress their will on the rest of us.
The wolves are meant to destroy the deer and elk and moose so that the anti-gun crowd can take away one of our arguments.
“You don’t need those rifles! There are no deer left!”
They killed a wolf last week just a few miles from my house. A BIG, healthy wolf. There was a mountain lion in the garden center of a store a couple of miles from my house.
Not good.
Stopped reading. Yup. With ya. Generally, in Montana, in both sexes, adult mule deer are noticeably larger than whitetails. I’ve butchered enough of them to know. Granted, a yearling mule deer might be the same size as an adult whitetail, but . . . you can’t trust any article that gets a fact like so wrong.
Cool!
Anyone with a heart should prefer this plan.
If I had a choice, I would much rather be killed with a bullet than violently mauled to death and partially eaten while still alive.
Man is a much more humane hunter than nature!
Because big money from out of state environazis passed a referendum to ALTER THE STATE CONSTITUTION and outlaw baiting and dogs for bear hunting, the most effective means to hunt them. Bear numbers have exploded since. So now government employees use bait and dogs to thin the populations.
“But natural predation is not seen as the leading cause of mule deer declines in Colorado.”
Then why do they want to kill a lot of bears and lions? So much about this article is mindless.
Comparing Kansas whitetail and Colorado Mulies, the whitetail and taller, the mulies are stockier, I thing the meat content about averages out about the same.
YMMV
Mule deer are enormous. Not smaller than white tails.
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