Radio Waves Help Improve Hunting

The next time you come up behind a Fish and Game truck moving slowly down a mountain highway, cut the driver some slack. He may be working to make your next deer hunt better. Biologist David Collins spends many hours driving the roads of southwest Idaho, listening for beeps. Those beeps are transmitted by radio collars on deer fawns. As Collins starts to pick up a signal he must slow down to hone in on it, and eventually stop to record the data it relays. Fish and Game biologists track the movement of deer for various reasons, but the one thing they are hoping to learn above all others is how deer die. If a collar has remained in the same exact location for at least four hours, Collins' receives a different kind of beep on his equipment. At that point he leaves the road and sets out on foot with a remote receiver to search for what is probably a dead deer. Once he locates the carcass, Collins conducts a field necropsy, an investigation of the remains to figure out how the deer died. According to Wildlife Manager Jon Rachael, the cause of death is not always what you might think. "Well, some people think that the primary reason that the fawns die is because of predators. Sometimes that's true," Rachael said "But what we've often found is that some of our fawns are dying of malnutrition or they're being killed by predators when they're almost dead of malnutrition and that's an indication that we might have a habitat problem." In fact, habitat improvement is the main focus of a program to bring back populations of mule deer in Idaho. The Mule Deer Initiative is Fish and Game's top priority. The department is devoting more time and resources to give mule deer herds a fighting chance. The fawn monitoring program is just a small part of that effort. This year Collins has not heard many "mortality beeps" on his drives around southwest Idaho. That is a good indication that deer herds are surviving the winter well. The bad news is they are probably surviving well because of a lack of snow. That could mean trouble next winter, and in future years. Fish and Game managers cannot control drought, or other forces of nature that affect deer herds. The department can help deer populations in other ways; improving habitat, controlling predators when appropriate, and providing hunting seasons that enhance management goals. The data Collins and others around the state gather during fawn monitoring will help the department decide when and where to make adjustments that will lead to more mule deer for the future. So the next time you have to slow down for a Fish and Game truck in deer country, do not lay on the horn. Wait for a good spot to pass, and wave as you go by. The guy inside that truck just might be doing you a big favor.