From the Northern Crew:
Dear deer people,
This last week was one for the record books. Although we only caught 12 deer, we surpassed our 100th deer milestone on Monday night! After catching 3 deer in Clover traps during the day, we caught 4 deer under a rocket net that night – the most deer my crew has ever caught in a single day. Not only that, but 4 deer is the most we’ve ever caught under a rocket net.
One of our Clover captures this week was a recaptured doe, but she was new to us! After inspecting her ear tags, we realized she must have been tagged by a previous crew. So, Tess looked up the info in the database and discovered that this doe was captured on March 8th, 2011. 
She was an adult back then which make her at least 8 years old now! The trap she was caught in was 1.25 miles away from where she was originally captured and tagged.
Another one of our recaptures this week was a fawn that we collared last summer near Cherry Springs State Park. The collar was fully expanded and still transmitting a signal, but we decided to remove the collar as a safety precaution since the battery will be dying within the next few months anyway.
My crew has put in a strong effort this winter, but their allotted hours are dwindling. Therefore, we will be rounding out our trapping season around Wednesday this upcoming week. Can you believe it?! Poo patrol is just around the corner.
PGC Deer and Elk Section
From the Southern Crew:
Hi all,
This week really felt like the final week of deer trapping, but it’s not quite over yet!
We kept our Clover traps open through Tuesday and caught one juvenile female deer.
I received an email regarding a VIT doe mortality. The crew and I picked up the other truck and went straight to Rothrock to investigate. We located the doe at about 7:15 PM. She was covered almost entirely with leaves; cached in what looked like the doe’s bed site. We took some photos and uncovered the carcass. There was extensive hemorrhaging and bite marks on the head/neck. Most everything else looked untouched. We dropped her off at the Penn State Animal Diagnostics Lab to be necropsied. The necropsy revealed that the doe was actually hit by a car and finished off by a predator. How crazy, yet cool is that?!
We were planning on jumping back into deer trapping on Thursday, 
but the bear crew was short a few people on their final day of den work. After getting approval, we joined the bear crew on Thursday and visited 3 den sites. A very exciting, once-in-a-lifetime experience!
We are re-opening some traps on Monday for a few more days. We’ll begin pulling traps this week and should be venturing onto pellet surveys by the end of the week. Here’s to one final push in our trapping efforts!
Field Crew Leader
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