Wide spread Antelope winter kill in Wy this winter.

[Blkrflguy]

About a month ago in western Wy there was several hundred speed goats that died from a disease. Then yesterday, I was talking with a friend who's lived in Wy for the last 40 years. He shared with me that last week he spoke with a warden he's known for a long time and that G & F the last couple weeks have picked up over 2,500 carcasses. Said they estimate all the fawns from last year are dead from the strong winter this year, and they are estimating an 80% death rate among the muley fawns. Not great news at all, especially considering that last year Wy took 13,000 Antelope tags off the table because of winter on the east side of the state. Goat tags this year might not even be issued. Who knows... About every 5 years Wy gets a very strong winter and lots of snow. This year is that 5 year I guess. We still have 18" of snow outside our cabin and when the snow gets that deep, and hardens from freezing, animals have a hard time pawing down to the ground. The juice isn't worth the squeeze and they die from starvation. Available tags for Antelope this year may be a record low offering from the state, sadly.

 

[lancetkenyon]

Wow! I have been building BPs for WY, guess I will keep getting points until WY recovers. Sad to hear.

 

[RWE]

Very sorry to hear this news. Hope they fair better than anticipated.

 

[30378wbymag]

How is birth rate mortality calculated months BEFORE species birth occurs???

They breed in mid-September, and the doe carries her fawn until late May. The gestation period is around six weeks longer than that of the white-tailed deer. Females usually bear within a few days of each other. Twin fawns are common.

 

[338 dude]

Wow! I have been building BPs for WY, guess I will keep getting points until WY recovers. Sad to hear.

Me too

 

[Greta06]

How is birth rate mortality calculated months BEFORE species birth occurs???

They breed in mid-September, and the doe carries her fawn until late May. The gestation period is around six weeks longer than that of the white-tailed deer. Females usually bear within a few days of each other. Twin fawns are common.

He's talking about last years fawns not surviving the hard winter...

 

[birddog 68]

Wow! I have been building BPs for WY, guess I will keep getting points until WY recovers. Sad to hear.

Me too

Same here

 

[30378wbymag]

He's talking about last years fawns not surviving the hard winter...

DUH Do I feel stoopid!!! Yup, makes sense; we've had a pretty good winter here too...

 

[JRY46]

Another guy here that hates to here this news. 4 of us have been building our points for 11 years for deer, elk and antelope, and were getting ready to use them in the next couple of years before WY priced us out of being able to afford to hunt there.

 

[26Reload]

From old boys I've talked to.....
"when hard winters hit the deer and elk can abort their pregnancies......it's called survival..."
Now I can't believe it happens in "all the critters".....but low count of fawns and calves.....sure sound reasonable...

I watch a video today of a raghorn I Wyoming trying to get thru the frozen snow this weekend.....it didn't have a long ways to get to the feeding grounds..but as stressed out as it looked...trying to jump..falling and sliding.....I believe he's gonna be dead soon....some never make it back from being extremely stressed...
Hell....lots of humans fail the stress test too....

 

[Blkrflguy]

About a month ago in western Wy there was several hundred speed goats that died from a disease. Then yesterday, I was talking with a friend who's lived in Wy for the last 40 years. He shared with me that last week he spoke with a warden he's known for a long time and that G & F the last couple weeks have picked up over 2,500 carcasses. Said they estimate all the fawns this year are dead from the strong winter this year, and they are estimating an 80% death rate among the muley fawns. Not great news at all, especially considering that last year Wy took 13,000 Antelope tags off the table because of winter on the east side of the state. Goat tags this year might not even be issued. Who knows... About every 5 years Wy gets a very strong winter and lots of snow. This year is that 5 year I guess. We still have 18" of snow outside our cabin and when the snow gets that deep, and hardens from freezing, animals have a hard time pawing down to the ground. The juice isn't worth the squeeze and they die from starvation. Available tags for Antelope this year may be a record low offering from the state, sadly.

Another guy here that hates to here this news. 4 of us have been building our points for 11 years for deer, elk and antelope, and were getting ready to use them in the next couple of years before WY priced us out of being able to afford to hunt there.

From old boys I've talked to.....
"when hard winters hit the deer and elk can abort their pregnancies......it's called survival..."
Now I can't believe it happens in "all the critters".....but low count of fawns and calves.....sure sound reasonable...

I watch a video today of a raghorn I Wyoming trying to get thru the frozen snow this weekend.....it didn't have a long ways to get to the feeding grounds..but as stressed out as it looked...trying to jump..falling and sliding.....I believe he's gonna be dead soon....some never make it back from being extremely stressed...
Hell....lots of humans fail the stress test too....

What I was I was referring to was all the ones born last year. Not the ones that are currently carrying. However, those that are carrying might be able to abort, I've never looked into that. I also read a story last week that I didn't mention above in my original post, of a plow driver who's run is out on I-80. That state hwy gets hit hard every year. He describes seeing a few elk and how they looked like they were dead. Some you could see the ribs on. He kept an eye on them as he made his plow drive to clear the roads every few days and noted that one of the elk that he had seen the previous few days was no longer with the group. The feed grounds have been a political football here for a long time. But If it weren't for the grounds the elk would suffer as much as the other animals. The winter snow here is a balancing act. We have to have enough for the melt in spring to bring the water levels back up, but too hard of a winter kills much of the big game. The last couple of years the west has been very dry. We've had smoke in the summer months almost weekly the last couple years from fires as far away as Oregon. Sometimes you almost can't go outside because the smoke is so bad. Sometimes it completely blocks some of the mountain views.

 

[Blkrflguy]

About a month ago in western Wy there was several hundred speed goats that died from a disease. Then yesterday, I was talking with a friend who's lived in Wy for the last 40 years. He shared with me that last week he spoke with a warden he's known for a long time and that G & F the last couple weeks have picked up over 2,500 carcasses. Said they estimate all the fawns this year are dead from the strong winter this year, and they are estimating an 80% death rate among the muley fawns. Not great news at all, especially considering that last year Wy took 13,000 Antelope tags off the table because of winter on the east side of the state. Goat tags this year might not even be issued. Who knows... About every 5 years Wy gets a very strong winter and lots of snow. This year is that 5 year I guess. We still have 18" of snow outside our cabin and when the snow gets that deep, and hardens from freezing, animals have a hard time pawing down to the ground. The juice isn't worth the squeeze and they die from starvation. Available tags for Antelope this year may be a record low offering from the state, sadly.

Another guy here that hates to here this news. 4 of us have been building our points for 11 years for deer, elk and antelope, and were getting ready to use them in the next couple of years before WY priced us out of being able to afford to hunt there.

Another guy here that hates to here this news. 4 of us have been building our points for 11 years for deer, elk and antelope, and were getting ready to use them in the next couple of years before WY priced us out of being able to afford to hunt there.

Yea a friend and I who live here were talking about that. I told him about the Randy Newberg video about burning tags. I can understand those who don't live here having frustration about that. I think a lot of western states residents are attending G & F meetings and demanding less tags be issued to non res. When I moved here about 5 years ago the non resident Elk tag was $750, and you have to actually live here for a year before the state considers you a resident, unlike some states where after 90 days or so you're in like Flynn! So I wasn't going to pay that much to hunt when I didn't even know where to go. And I didn't move here until the month of Nov and there's no bull tags after that so I actually had to wait 2 years until I could hunt a bull w/o giving my left arm. Next year I believe the non res tag goes up to around $1,800. I can't imagine paying that. I'd probably go to Colorado or Utah instead.

 

[Hunterjones]

I doubt this winter will have any kind of profound effect on our elk herd but the deer and antelope will take hits in some areas of the state. The G&F department has been feeding and paying some ranchers to feed elk in areas where they congregate in years like this that they don't normally supplementally feed. You know the last two winters here were absolute non eventsin the western part of the state. This winter has been more like a "normal" winter if there is such a thing. I'm sure that there will be many people that are new here and haven't experienced a "normal" winter until now leave here for good this year…

 

[Hunterjones]

Yea a friend and I who live here were talking about that. I told him about the Randy Newberg video about burning tags. I can understand those who don't live here having frustration about that. I think a lot of western states residents are attending G & F meetings and demanding less tags be issued to non res. When I moved here about 5 years ago the non resident Elk tag was $750, and you have to actually live here for a year before the state considers you a resident, unlike some states where after 90 days or so you're in like Flynn! So I wasn't going to pay that much to hunt when I didn't even know where to go. And I didn't move here until the month of Nov and there's no bull tags after that so I actually had to wait 2 years until I could hunt a bull w/o giving my left arm. Next year I believe the non res tag goes up to around $1,800. I can't imagine paying that. I'd probably go to Colorado or Utah instead.

It's only the "Special" non resident tag that's going up to around $2K