OCR Text |
Show Predators not hurting Book Cliffs deer population, DWR official says According to a Division of Wildlife Resources biologist, biol-ogist, predators in the North Book Cliffs are not having a significant im pact on deer populations there. Dave Peterson is in the third year of an exhaustive ten-year predator study, initiated by the Division's Nongame Section. "Of course, all information is not in at this point," he says, "but it just doesn't look like predators, mainly coyotes, are holding down the deer population, at least since our study began." "It's the same old story," continues Peterson. Peter-son. "You can't generalize general-ize about coyotes killing significant numbers of deer. Our data is showing that it is an extremely complex interaction of many thingsweather, size of other prey, populations popula-tions and sportsman harvest harv-est among them which affect deer populations." Peterson explains that the purpose of the study is to look at the impact which coyotes have on deer. But he points out that to investigate this problem, it is necessary to study many other coyote prey species, such as cottontails cotton-tails and small rodents, as well as other predators which might be preying on deer-bobcats, lions, and b The North Book Cliff study area, over 900 square miles, was chosen for several reasons. The area, herd unit 28A, had a reduced deer population in 1975 which showed no signs of increasing. The area is principally federal and state land. There are healthy predator populations popula-tions and, since no sheep herds are using the major portion of the study site, there are no coyote control efforts. Most work now, explains ex-plains Peterson, involves accumulating infromation on the status of predator and prey populations, and on what the predators eat. Peterson is finding that 60 percent of the coyote's diet consists of cottontails and some jackrabbits, 25 percent is deer and the remaining 15 percent is small rodents and miscellaneous miscel-laneous species of animals and plants. Asked whether the deer portion of the diet represents repre-sents coyote-killed deer or carrion, Peterson pointed out that his study will tell what various predators eat, not what they kill. Although some deer are no doubt killed by coyotes, he says that coyotes also take advantage of dead deer. "Deer die .for many reasons - disease, accidents, acci-dents, starvation, from wounds inflicted during hunting season. It's reasonable reas-onable that a coyote, or any predator, will take advantage of that situation," situa-tion," he says. It is difficult to get the total picture on an animal like the coyote. It is a wide roaming predator, few in-depth studies have been done on it, especially especial-ly in Utah, and its behavior is a great deal more complex than once believed. For instance, Peterson said that he expected coyotes to take more deer following last year's drought, due to a crash in the small mammal population. popula-tion. But his diet percentages percent-ages did not reveal this. He speculates that the coyotes simply increased their ranges to find more small mammals. "It all boils down to a very complex situation," he says. A ten-year study may seem like a long time to work on one problem. But we're seeing that we'll need that much time. Ultimately, we'll have a pretty good feeling for predator's effects on deer population in this part of Utah." |