OCR Text |
Show Deer Losses in Utah May Affect Fall Hunt Deer losses in Utah this winter win-ter may affect the 1973 deer hunt, according to Division of Wildlife Resources game biologists biol-ogists ; but due to improved winter ranges around the state the effect will not be as critical as that felt in former years. Homer Stapley, assistant game management chief, noted that very heavy losses occurred occur-red in the severe winters of 1948-49 and 1951-52, and moderate mod-erate losses were seen in 1964-65 1964-65 when weather conditions were similar to this year's. He stressed that losses this year would have been much greater if deer numbers had not been reduced or range conditions improved. Some deer mortality can be expected during winters win-ters of heavy snowfall, but poor range conditions compound com-pound the problem. The losses in the late 40's and 50's were due, a large part, to the poor range conditions. Sportsmen were informed of the problem and supported the Division's program to cut the deer herds and improve the range. Their license dollars footed the bill for the rehabilitation rehab-ilitation and development of critical deer winter ranges in the state, and now a return can be seen for the expenditure of those funds. Stapley noted that the areas with fewest losses this winter were those that were previously previous-ly rehabilitated with the money mon-ey furnished by the sportsmen. Normally, fawns are lost first, followed by yearlings and old bucks. Mature does winter best |