Myths of Mule Deer Management
This article was originally published on Modernhuntman.com in the Spring of 2020.
The first big game animal I killed was a forked horn mule deer with my grandpa when I was 13 years old. I have chased the grey ghost with varying levels of success every fall since then. In an effort to become a more conscious and consistent mule deer hunter in 2020, I vowed to do a deep dive into learning about mule deer and how to hunt them consistently and effectively. An important part of this journey for me has been interviewing various biologists and mule deer managers across the west to discuss muley habitat, hunting regulations, and just how mule deer populations are managed.
The conversations I had with 6 different biologists from 5 separate western states debunked many of the long-held conventional wisdom I had heard regarding mule deer. These conversations explained why common mule deer myths I’ve heard through the grapevine simply do not always hold up as the best management decision when applied on the ground. This is what I’ve learned…
Antler Restrictions Don’t Always Make for Bigger Bucks
Most deer hunters want more bucks and more bucks to be big when they are hunting. To accomplish this I’ve often heard about implementing restrictions on antler points on deer in the regulations.
It’s true, hunters can not shoot 100% of all the 2.5-year-old deer and expect to have older 3.5-year-old mule deer the following fall. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, however, data from Wyoming suggests trophy quality may diminish during times of antler restrictions in different types of units.
Wyoming uses antler widths to classify the trophy type of adult deer, using a general correlation of wider bucks come with older age class. Type 1 is under 20 inches, type 2 is a deer with 20-24 inch width and type 3 bucks are 24 inches and wider. “In areas where you have 3 points or better, your class 1 bucks goes up 10 to 20% and your class 2 and 3 deer goes down,” says Lee Knox, a wildlife biologist with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
“The public that would be satisfied shooting a forked horn now have to find a 3-point or higher buck. You end up reducing the amount of deer that make it to 5.5 years old because you kill them at 3.5 and 4.5 years old.”
There are more variables to antler restrictions and environment-dependent situations that vary by state, region, and mule deer herd. One thing is true about all antler restrictions – they are an effective tool for reducing the overall harvest of deer in places where deer are not as visible, like heavily timbered units. In the short term, using antler point restrictions is effective for helping move a cohort of bucks into the deer population. In the long term, however, those antler point restrictions can reduce big buck numbers in a significant way.
Hunting Predators Is Not a Top Management Tool
I am as interested in managing cougars and coyotes with hunting as the next life-long sportsman. That said, I was surprised to hear controlling predation is not the top tool biologists discuss using to improve mule deer populations. The increase of wolves, healthy populations of cougars and coyotes, and high black bear numbers on calving or fawn sites have an impact on mule deer.
Though managing predator populations with hunting is important, the author was surprised to hear it is not the primary management tool to maintain or grow deer herds. That does not mean hunters cannot partake in predator hunting, of course.
Jay Kolbe from Montana pointed out “You have added population stressors of a 5-predator system that historically for the last 100 years hasn’t been like that. And they all play a role.” Only looking at predator reductions does not do justice to the suite of mule deer population drivers, however.
That role is all part of a host of factors that impacts mule deer. As JT Romatzke, the NW Regional Manager for Colorado Parks and Wildlife says, “You get into the causation of population declines and it’s a multitude of things – it’s predation, it’s diseases, it’s elk competition, it’s highway crossings, and it’s all sorts of things the deer have a dilemma with…”
As a result, biologists focus on the factors that will make the greatest difference in mule deer health within the purview of current management efforts. In essence, biologists look at populations like financial advisors who can grow revenue faster than their clients can cut spending.
“If you are truly concerned there aren’t enough bucks in a population, we need to figure out ways to make more fawns,” said Lee Knox. “We as humans get so caught up in the now, that we only care about next fall. There’s very little we can do now to manipulate buck populations for next year.”
All biologists I talked to confirmed - habitat is the number one driving factor to make more fawns.
CWD Science Suggests Tough Management Decisions
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is on the lips of most mule deer managers and many hunters, and for good reason. High prevelance of CWD in mule deer most certainly leads to population-level declines from the always fatal nature of the disease. Even in the highest prevalence populations, managers acknowledge there are things hunters can do to keep prevalence in check while maintaining, and in some cases growing deer hunting opportunity.
JT Romatzke states, “the latest science we have suggests that bucks are 2.5 times more likely to be carriers of Chronic Wasting Disease than does… There are some management actions that might help reduce prevalence rates, which includes lowering sex ratios.”
What JT is referring to is lowering the number of bucks per one-hundred does in their post-season deer surveys. For sportsmen, that generally means hunters shooting more bucks, and doing so when they are more vulnerable in the rut.
He continued, “in Middle Park, up in Grand County, we’ve got incredibly high license numbers, we have a bit lower sex ratio, and our prevalence rate on Chronic Wasting Disease has been flat-lined at least for 10-15 years.”
Jaden found this buck while taking the chance to hunt a 2nd choice 3rd season mule deer tag in Colorado. Instead of tagging out on the second day of the hunt, he decided to pass and look for a more mature buck. This hunt opportunity was made possible because of the tag increases in response to the Colorado CWD management plan actions.
This information is positive, especially considering many units and during various seasons near Grand County still maintain reasonable hunter harvest success rates.
Knox points out from his experience with the high prevalence herd in the Laramie Mountains of Wyoming, “You can still have high buck ratios. You can still grow a population. It’s just difficult to have an older age class.”
Wyoming and Montana are both looking to implement CWD management strategies in areas where prevalence is of concern. For Montana’s Region 3 biologist Jay Kolbe, that means suggesting seasons in the north end of his region are extended in Montana. As Jay said, “We’re proposing to go back to a standard 5-week season in those districts [with CWD] and it’s not always popular.”
All biologists I have talked to agree that involving the public is important to ensuring folks know what’s happening and why, and how managers suggest hunters adapt to the new disease on the landscape.
Not All Fires are Good or Bad
Whether attending a hunting season setting meeting or having a drink at the local bar, the conversations around wildfires on the landscape and how we manage them turn into a fire hazard themselves. After talking with wildlife managers from Nevada desert to the high country of northern Montana, one thing became very clear; fire’s impact on mule deer habitat varies wildly.
This buck found himself migrating through a good mid-mountain burn. Burns can be really good for mule deer and for glassing them up as a hunter. Photo by Jaden Bales
“There’s been a lot of fires at high elevation mountain habitat that’s actually been really good for mule deer. It really improves that summer habitat – aspen communities, early secessional mountain brush habitat that’s a really good thing for does with fawns,” said biologist Curtis Hendrickson, the Regional Wildlife Manager for the Upper Snake Region in Idaho.
On the other end of the spectrum, Cody Schroeder of Nevada Department of Wildlife makes great points regarding the lowland fires in some areas he’s familiar with, “In Nevada there are some pretty big lowland fires that have just consumed huge landscapes and unfortunately they have taken out a lot of our brush communities which are important for mule deer.”
The invasive species on that same landscape – namely cheatgrass, medusa head, and ventenata – all produce a negative feedback loop because they are so quick to catch fire again. Though volunteers and land managers are pouring a lot of resources to rehabilitating those landscapes, it’s a tough row to hoe compared to the destruction of habitat that’s already been done and that can be expected year after year with lowland fires.
Mule Deer May Never Return to the Good ‘Ol Days
I grew up in a household filled with deer antlers from “the good old days.” My grandpa often has told stories of he and my uncle taking horses into the backcountry for the weekend and shooting a camp-full of big mature bucks between whiskey-lubricated wall tent nights. In most online comment sections or public meetings, you’ll find a lot of folks, likely not too different in age than my grandfather, who are jaded towards mule deer managers – expecting populations to eventually be returned to “the good old days.” Unfortunately, it’s become clear there are a lot of places where that expectation cannot be met with current social and environmental factors.
In areas with mule deer populations well below management objectives, “You may just not ever be able to have the kind of mule deer numbers or hunting opportunities [hunters] grew up with in the 70’s or 80’s.,” says Kolbe. “Some of our biologists in the Beaverhead region have gone out on a limb and said, ‘we know our numbers aren’t where they were historically – we recognize that. But look at our winter ranges,’ where they show a shot from 1920 that doesn’t even look like the same landscape today,” he adds. The landscape Kolbe is referring to contained more steppe, bitterbrush-type habitat in the early 1900’s and is now more covered with conifers and other habitat that doesn’t favor mule deer.
“You may just not ever be able to have the kind of mule deer numbers or hunting opportunities [hunters] grew up with in the 70’s or 80’s.”
Unfortunately, though declines in mule deer are obvious to sportsmen, biologists, landowners, and others, technology has also suggested some old projections of historical deer populations are inaccurate. In discussing the mule deer number decline, JT Romatzke said, “We used to project over 100,000 deer in this area. Now we project about 30,000 over the course of about 60 years. Some of that is just statistics and modeling and how we quantify the amount of animals on the landscape. So it’s not necessarily a true decline based on that.”
Yes, science around mule deer management is always changing. Biologists have better technology, more data, and gather more complete information about muley populations each year. Up until this point folks across the west have managed deer based on the best science available and while it’s easy to get augured into old school myths around mule deer management, it’s important to make the most accurate science-based decisions as possible when discussing mule deer hunting and mule deer conservation.
My conversations with wildlife biologists were not all doom and gloom. In eastern Montana, deer populations are at or near a 20-year high. Nevada deer hunting remains a quality experience from their high buck to doe ratios and low hunter tag numbers. Colorado and Wyoming offer great quality trophy buck potential that make them incredible destinations for non-residents. And Idaho is looking at ways to maintain quality over-the-counter rifle deer hunting opportunities so folks can go chase the grey-ghost year in and year out.
If we want to both grow and improve mule deer hunting opportunity, I suggest we pay close attention to the mule deer resource we care about so dearly. That first includes being involved in conversations with our biologists to make science-based management decisions. Then, becoming active participants in setting regulations related to hunting mule deer. In the end, big game are managed in the public trust and that includes you.
