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PGC offering up studies on predators in the wilderness

By Shirley Grenoble

sports@altoonamirror.com

The day after Christmas, deer hunters should have a fairly good season, since the weather forecasts are far more favorable to hunting than the unrelenting snow and cold we had during the rifle deer season. The constant wind and cold, at least where I hunted, discouraged many hunters from spending as much time hunting as they usually would.

In the mountainous areas, there should be a good tracking snow in most places and temperatures that don’t freeze your bones. I’m sure the ugly weather of regular season spared many deer so those who can go flintlock hunting now should see more deer than usual.

There was a good acorn crop in most of the state this year, and deer will be out gorging on them as well as in cut cornfields. Signs of feeding deer will be easy to locate and archers and flintlockers should have some good success in the post-season.

Hunter’s complaints after the rifle season were the same as in the past several years, that there are simply not any deer in the mountainous or State Game Land areas. One of the animals that clean up the woods (gut piles, dead deer not recovered, etc.) are coyotes. Many sportsmen blame the increase in the coyote population in the last decade for the decline of the deer herd. Many have taken up coyote hunting in the offseason. Coyotes are a controversial subject among hunters. The Game Commission has not been silent about these creatures, however, and here is some of what they have to say about the subject.

The coyote is surrounded by mystery. It’s inhabited some parts of the state since the 1930s, but it’s a relative newcomer in others. Game Commission biologists are finding indications the coyote population is increasing in some areas of the state, yet even those who log endless hours in the Pennsylvania outdoors might go their lives without seeing one in the wild.

Add to that the false, recurring rumors coyotes were stocked by insurance companies, and the idea that coyotes ravage the deer populations so important to Pennsylvania hunters, and the reasons for coyote’s mystique become even clearer.

“There are several predators in Pennsylvania that absolutely do kill deer, specifically young fawns,” said Chris Rosenberry, who once headed the Game Commission’s deer and elk section. “Coyotes and bears top the list.”

In managing Pennsylvania’s deer populations, Rosenberry said, the agency annually monitors fawn production and has the ability to compensate for fawns lost to predators and other causes by controlling the number of antlerless deer licenses allocated.

The Game Commission studied the effects of fawn predation back in 2001. The study found about half of all fawns born each spring survived to see the fall hunting seasons. Predators including coyotes, bears, bobcats and fishers were responsible for killing about 22 percent of the fawns that died.

“For most of my seven years as commissioner, I have heard the concerns of many sportsmen across the state with regard to the effects of predators on white-tailed deer,” Commissioner Jay Delaney said. “We’ve done some good research work on this subject in the past, but opinions about predator impacts on deer still vary. By pulling together some of the top researchers in the country, we’ve entered into a conversation that will yield even more valuable input on the matter.”

Leading biologists from the U.S. Forest Service, Penn State, the University of Georgia, Mississippi State University, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the University of Alberta, and the Quality Deer Management Association were among those who provided input on evaluating the impact of predators on the state’s deer.

“These biologists have led research throughout the eastern United States looking at the impact of predation on deer,” said former Game Commission Executive Director R. Matthew Hough. “Their experience and insight from their past and current research is of great interest to the agency, and to our hunters.”

One common opinion offered by some hunters is to use predator control to reduce predation on fawns. However, large-scale predator control repeatedly has been found not to work. For example, U.S. Forest Service researcher John Kilgo conducted research in South Carolina, which found that even when coyotes were taken in higher numbers, other coyotes quickly filled the void created by their absence.

“There is no doubt that predators such as bears and coyotes do prey on fawns,” Kilgo said. “Although some researchers have been able to find instances where increased coyote removal has improved fawn survival at a very local level, coyote removal on a large scale is impossible.”

“When the results suggested fawn predation was different in the two study areas, an explanation was difficult to tease out. We knew habitat was different, and bear abundance within those particular wildlife management units was different, but we knew little about the predator communities at a scale as small as the study areas because monitoring predator species was not part of the study.”

The previous study showed fawns might die for any number of reasons. Some die of natural causes, some are struck by vehicles, and one fawn in the study even fell down a well. Of the fawns taken by predators, nearly equal proportions were taken by coyotes, bobcats and bears. It must be noted, however, that Pennsylvania’s bear population is thriving.

“Predator communities in Pennsylvania have changed during the past several decades due to increased coyote populations, fisher reintroductions and fishers dispersing in Pennsylvania from West Virginia,” Matt Lovallo said. “Management programs for bobcats and fishers also have targeted conservative harvests, allowing for growth in those populations.

“Biologists also are evaluating techniques to allow them to estimate abundance of bears, coyotes, bobcats and fishers. In addition, advanced technologies now are available to help biologists gain more insight into fawn mortality.

“We know fawns are more vulnerable to mortality in the first week of life,” said Kip Adams, a wildlife biologist for the Quality Deer Management Association. “However, there are now small transmitters that can be implanted into captured does, and when a fawn is born, a signal is sent alerting researchers and leading them to the exact location, improving monitoring.”

The window within which fawns are preyed upon is relatively short. In actuality, the chances of fawns being preyed upon shrink with each passing day as fawns grow older and are more capable of fleeing from predators. Pennsylvania’s coyotes rarely take healthy adult deer, and ongoing monitoring has indicated predators have had a consistent rather than growing impact on fawns.

As hunters the Game Commission understands the public’s interest in predators and the importance of tracking predator impacts on fawns. To hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians, deer hunting isn’t just a form of recreation, but a passion and a way of life, Hough said. And, like the Game Commission, those hunters want to ensure Pennsylvania’s important deer resource is managed to ensure healthy deer, healthy habitat and hunting opportunity.

To that end, the Game Commission is launching a new study into predator impacts on fawns.

The new study is a bit different than its predecessor. It will be conducted in conjunction with ongoing deer research, which, among other things, has helped to reduce costs. But, importantly, the connection to existing projects will help researchers to more efficiently and effectively carry out their work.

For example, the study calls for capturing does this winter to implant the transmitters that signal when fawns are born. The job is made easier by the fact that some of those does already are fitted with GPS collars as part of a separate study on deer movements.

Likewise, the implanted transmitters will make fawns easier to find and equip with collars.

The new study differs from the original in a second way, too. The new study will measure the types of predators present in the study areas and their relative abundance, which will be useful for interpreting any differences in survival noted during the study.

The time has come for new research into predator impacts on deer, and we stand to learn much from this study our staff has worked hard to develop,” . “Hunters have made it clear: The question of how many fawns are lost to predators is on the minds of many, and this study could well help answer that question”

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