Severe Winter Influences Mule Deer Production

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 Aerial observations during the North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s fall mule deer survey confirmed an expected decrease in production after the severe winter and spring of 2008-09.

Bruce Stillings, big game biologist in Dickinson, said observers who accompanied pilots in fixed-wing planes counted 1,528 mule deer in the October demographic survey. While the buck-to-doe ratio of 0.54 was above the long-term average (0.42 bucks per doe), the fawn-to-doe ratio of 0.74 was the second lowest documented since 1975, and well below the long-term average of 0.95 fawns per doe. The only year with lower fawn production was 1997, Stillings said, following one of the worst winters on record when biologists reported 0.72 fawns per doe.

The fall aerial survey, conducted specifically to study demographics, covers 23 study areas and 285 square miles in western North Dakota. Biologists survey the same study areas in the spring of each year to determine a population index.

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