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Mike DeMaster is an avid hunter, outdoors enthusiast, and conservationist from the Sheboygan area. For a number of years, Mike participated as a volunteer researcher, capturing and collaring white-tailed deer for this study in northern Wisconsin. The study area was in the Chequamegon National Forest near Winter, Wisconsin. Mike has some great pictures, interesting stories and unique experiences that he will share with us..
WDNR White-tailed Deer Research Projects – Predation and Fawn Recruitment Study
The distribution and abundance of predators on Wisconsin’s landscape has changed over time. From the time a doe is impregnated to the time the fall hunting season begins, a number of fawns are lost every year to various causes before and after birth including weather, food availability and nutrition, disease, predation, accidents, and hunter harvest. This study will measure the role of predation on recruitment which is the number of deer added to the population each year by fawns surviving into the fall. Researchers will gather field data on doe pregnancy rates and litter sizes and fawn survival and causes of mortality from birth to the hunting season. This study will also attempt to identify the specific predators (mainly wolves, bears, bobcats, and coyotes) of fawns and measure the impact that predation has on recruitment.
This study will provide another method of estimating deer population growth between the end of a hunting season to the beginning of the next. This is important because precise deer population growth predictions allow wildlife biologists to prescribe the best antlerless harvest quotas in a deer management unit for the following season. |
