OCR Text |
Show Resalts of Study To De'j Number ol Dead Dell On Range During TI.e . Information on the extent of deer losses from gunshot wounds during the hutning season is frequently fre-quently a matter of conjecture by sportsmen and game managers. man-agers. Forest Service studies on the Fishlake National Forest during dur-ing the past three yeards have served to give a fairly good conception con-ception of the number of deer left dead on the range for that particular area. The Forest Serivce employees on the FishlakeNational Forest recorded all paunches from legally legal-ly killed deer which they encountered en-countered during the hutn as well as all dead deer which they saw which had been left by the hunters either through wilful intent or because they were unable un-able to find the deer after having wounded them. The ratio between be-tween the paunches and dead deer chould give the ratio between be-tween the legal kill as represented represent-ed by the paunches and the range loss. However, it was found that the average dead deer can be seen at a considerably greater distance than the average paunch. Thereofre, the distances at which each paunch and dead deer was first sighted were recorded. re-corded. From the average distances dis-tances recorded for 30 paunches and 97 dead deer the average dead deer was first sighted at 48.9 feet and the average paunch at 22.8 feet. With the average dead deer being seen at a distance dis-tance 2.14 times greater than that of the- paunch it developed that the number of paunches recorded throughout the period of the study, 335, must be increased 2.14 times to place the paunch data on a comparative basis with the number of dead deer seen which was 107. The resulting 718 paunches Is 6.7 times greater than the 107 dead doer recorded for the same areas. Therefore, the above study indicates that tnere is one dead deer left on the range for every 6.7 deer taken out by the hunters. Similar information recorded on the Manti National Forest during dur-ing and immediately following the 1933 hunting season indicated indi-cated a range loss of one deer for every 4.6 taken out. The large amount of foliage on the oak during last fall's hutn has perhaps per-haps resulted in a greater number num-ber of wounded deer escaping the hunter than noraml. W. LMtie RobiivMt, District Forest Ranger. |