Deer Crew Diaries – Entry XXXV

 

From the Northern Crew:

[Hannah was away this week so April was pulling double duty.

Her update is below.]

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From the Southern Crew:

Hi all,

Last week, I traveled to the Northern Study Area twice to conduct mort runs on collared fawns and investigate a mortality on a GPS-collared deer while Hannah was away. 

I didn’t locate the carcass until around 7 PM. I drove around the doe’s home range and specifically checked near her last two GPS locations, but still nothing! So I asked Tess for the GPS location of the last mortality in the north which was associated with a poaching event. 

Once I got near the site, I picked up the telemetry signal. I found the carcass next to a creek just over the bank. The only thing left of the carcass was the neck meat and some meat on the legs. There were bite marks on the face and some of the ribs had been chewed on/broken. The hide was damp so the carcass had either been drug from or through the creek. I had to go back in the next morning to retrieve the ear tags.  In only 12 hours, the carcass had been heavily scavenged and dragged 8 meters.

We only have one GPS location documented for this doe crossing Route 6. Also, the fact that there was a GPS collared doe poached and dropped off north of Route 6 a few weeks ago seems odd. However, I’ll let the experts make the decisions here. [It appears someone in the area has it out for our deer.  Given the time and effort to capture these animals, this is just malicious.  They are not just killing a collared animal but stealing the data that it could have provided.  These research projects are conducted for the betterment of a public resource.  Any information regarding these incidents should be reported to Operation Game Thief: 1-888-PGC-8001] 

While in the north, I also came across one of the collared fawns with the doe on a mountain biking trail. The fawn didn’t stick around for any pictures. 

I’ll be contacting Tech Support because I again cannot connect to the PGC network and the security software on my laptop needs updated. Oh, technology!

 

 

 

 

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