Mule deer mystery case
https://youtu.be/VSyhmEycCtY
Wildlife scientists and conservationists are trying to solve the mystery of why mule deer across the Okanagan Valley are dying.Jesse Zeman, director of the Fish & Wildlife Restoration Program, says the project is in its first year and is the largest collaborative project that B.C. has ever seen.“We want to know how they are moving across the landscape, what is killing them, and how the habitat is affecting our deer population,” said Zeman. “We don’t know what’s driving the mortalities so far but that is why we hire these great people from UBCO and the University of Idaho.”Sophie Gilbert, assistant professor from the University of Idaho and one of her students are in the Okanagan to investigate.“Nobody can really tell us the reason,” she said. Gilbert says the original herd they were concerned about was the Boundary herd. “That historically was the most productive herd in the province and now it is just a shadow of its former self,” said Gilbert. Deer survival has been really low, much lower than expected, in the boundary area according to Zeman. The partners in the project include the B.C. Wildlife Federation, B.C. Fish and Wildlife branch, government staff, Okanagan National Alliance, the University of Idaho and UBCO.“Mule deer are kind of an icon in southern B.C., there has been a lot of concern over the species,” said Zeman. “We’ve been hearing about this since the 1970's.”Gilbert says they have a bunch of different ideas about what might be driving the decline.“The absence of fire from the ecosystem is one of those potential drivers, we also see a lot more white-tailed deer in the system they prefer disturbed habitats, old forest. White-tail deer feed predators, predators also eat mule deer,” she said.Wildfires produce a lot of deer food as the regrowth provides high quality and abundant food.“I know for people that are hunters that is their food, they go out and hunt mule deer and they want them to be sustainable. And the other thing is that they are an indicator that shows us that we are doing right by our ecosystems,” said Zeman. As a group, they will collar 30 adult does and 20 fawns per year in their study area.The deer will be GPS collared so they know where they are moving and health samples are taken.“We checked to see if the deer was pregnant, in this case, she was. She had two fetuses, two babies and we checked overall body condition,” said Zeman.The project will take a total of five years and then will give a recommendation on how to restore the mule deer habitat and population“Our first step is to identify which of these various factors on the landscape are driving the declines and will help stop the decline of mule deer and hopefully bring them back,” said Gilbert. Wildlife scientists and conservationists are trying to solve the mystery of why mule deer across the Okanagan Valley are dying.Jesse Zeman, director of the Fish & Wildlife Restoration Program, says the project is in its first year and is the largest collaborative project that B.C. has ever seen.“We want to know how they are moving across the landscape, what is killing them, and how the habitat is affecting our deer population,” said Zeman. “We don’t know what’s driving the mortalities so far but that is why we hire these great people from UBCO and the University of Idaho.”Sophie Gilbert, assistant professor from the University of Idaho and one of her students are in the Okanagan to investigate.“Nobody can really tell us the reason,” she said. Gilbert says the original herd they were concerned about was the Boundary herd. “That historically was the most productive herd in the province and now it is just a shadow of its former self,” said Gilbert. Deer survival has been really low, much lower than expected, in the boundary area according to Zeman. The partners in the project include the B.C. Wildlife Federation, B.C. Fish and Wildlife branch, government staff, Okanagan National Alliance, the University of Idaho and UBCO.“Mule deer are kind of an icon in southern B.C., there has been a lot of concern over the species,” said Zeman. “We’ve been hearing about this since the 1970's.”Gilbert says they have a bunch of different ideas about what might be driving the decline.“The absence of fire from the ecosystem is one of those potential drivers, we also see a lot more white-tailed deer in the system they prefer disturbed habitats, old forest. White-tail deer feed predators, predators also eat mule deer,” she said.Wildfires produce a lot of deer food as the regrowth provides high quality and abundant food.“I know for people that are hunters that is their food, they go out and hunt mule deer and they want them to be sustainable. And the other thing is that they are an indicator that shows us that we are doing right by our ecosystems,” said Zeman. As a group, they will collar 30 adult does and 20 fawns per year in their study area.The deer will be GPS collared so they know where they are moving and health samples are taken.“We checked to see if the deer was pregnant, in this case, she was. She had two fetuses, two babies and we checked overall body condition,” said Zeman.The project will take a total of five years and then will give a recommendation on how to restore the mule deer habitat and population“Our first step is to identify which of these various factors on the landscape are driving the declines and will help stop the decline of mule deer and hopefully bring them back,” said Gilbert.
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