Marquette, Mich. — Most of the 184 deer fitted with radio collars last winter in the western UP for a deer migration study survived winter, according to reports on the project. Overall survival of all whitetails was 73 percent, but adults had better survival (81 percent) than fawns (64.6 percent).
According to study results, adult does had a better survival rate than adult bucks at 84.5 percent and 73.1 percent, respectively. But buck fawns had a much better rate of survival than doe fawns at 70 percent and 57.9 percent, respectively.
A total of 44 deer died between January and June 15, 16 of which were adults and 28 were fawns. The adults that died included nine does and seven bucks. Sixteen of the fawns that died were does and 12 were bucks.
The two major causes of deaths among collared deer were predation and starvation/exposure. Twenty-one of the collared whitetails were killed by predators and 16 died of starvation/exposure. Wolves killed 11 deer, coyotes pulled down four, bobcats got two and the predator was unknown in four instances.
Among the 16 deer that died of starvation, 10 were fawns and six were adults, according to the study. Six of the fawns that died were males and four were females. Four adult does died and two adult bucks perished.
The first starvation loss occurred during the second week of February and the second winter mortality was recorded toward the end of that month. Four more died during March and 10 in April. Seven out of those 10 died after a mid-April snowstorm.
Two of the collared deer were killed by vehicles when attempting to cross roads, one died of an infection and the causes of death for four deer were unknown.
The collared deer were captured from four separate winter deer complexes or deer yards, three of which are near the Wisconsin border. The three yards near the Wisconsin border are Little Girls Point in Gogebic County, Lake Gogebic in Gogebic and Ontonagon counties northwest of Marenisco, and West Iron County, north and west of Iron River. The fourth winter yard is north of Bruce Crossing and is called East Middle Branch, which includes portions of Ontonagon and Gogebic counties.
Fifty-one deer were collared in the Little Girls Point yard, 50 each from Lake Gogebic and West Iron County and 31 were collared in the East Middle Branch yard. The locations where the remaining collared deer were captured were not recorded.
“Unfortunately, for a few deer the trap site number was not recorded on the datasheet,” DNR wildlife research biologist Dean Beyer said in an email. “So although 238 deer were captured and 184 were collared, we only know the type of sites 213 were captured at and 182 were collared at.”
The purpose of the study is to collect data about deer movements to and from winter deer yards, so that appropriate management zones can be established if CWD is detected in the UP. Deer infected with CWD have been detected within 30 miles of the UP border in Wisconsin. A number of deer collared in the Little Girls Point and West Iron County yards did move into Wisconsin. One of the whitetails from West Iron County moved almost 20 miles into Wisconsin.
Since only a fraction of the whitetails occupying the deer yards were fitted with radio collars, far more deer are surely traveling between the UP and Wisconsin, increasing the risk of the disease coming to the UP. Some deer from Wisconsin also have to be moving back and forth across the border.
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