It’s January. And that means deer trapping crews are out and about. It’s been pretty cold. Let’s hope that makes deer less shy. Crews are ready and eager to get that first deer in the trap. Here’s to another safe and successful field season!
[Comments in brackets are by Jeannine and Duane]
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From the Northern Crew:
Greetings from the North.
This past week the Susquehannock Crew worked on re-netting some traps and getting recalls completed on the two new trucks. We began pre-baiting sites, mostly in the southern part of the study area. Deer began visiting within a couple days. So far, we have 16 baited sites with cameras, and most are receiving plenty of attention from deer. This week we’ll begin putting traps in those locations and hopefully the deer will not be shy.
The weather has remained cold and snowy; and the deer seem hungry so stay tuned.
-Tom
Northern Crew Leader
PA Game Commission
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From the Southern Crew:
Hello all!
This was a little bit of a shorter week due to Monday’s holiday, but we got a lot done here in the south regardless. Tuesday was the first day we could start baiting, and by the next day we saw a few sites hit by our target species! With actual temperatures here down to -7F and good snow cover, I’m cautiously optimistic about this year’s trapping success. With a few bait/potential trap sites already found by deer, the crew and I started to move Clover traps around to our study area. If our traps had been set this guy would have been our first deer!
It’s nice to know that at least one individual is willing to “risk it for a biscuit” as we say on our crew.
We baited in both study areas this week and put out as many cameras as possible. Next week, we should be setting traps by Monday, along with moving more traps as deer find our bait.
Please wish us luck with trapping, and here’s hoping our weather remains advantageous!
-Michaela
Southern Crew Leader
PA Game Commission