Extreme decline in deer population.

[TSIPP]

I don’t hunt anymore but when I lived in Regina I couldn’t wait for hunting season, I’ve harvested many deer in archery, muzzle loader and high power, this year I was helping a city friend find a deer and looking for deer in about 15 quarters of pasture and 15 miles of grid road in the evening we found about a dozen deer, in the last 10 years we would have easily seen 300 deer, fresh snow and hardly any tracks, I’m thinking CWD has been very hard on the deer population lately, I just can’t believe the deer are gone, I’m not really complaining cause we had way too many deer but I’m kinda shocked that the deer are basically gone.

Anyone else have the same experience?

[Blaithin]

There’s less here but they’re certainly still around. I don’t know of this area being hit hard by CWD before. Have heard there seems to be less east of here though.

One thing is that coyote numbers are absolutely through the roof here. I can easily see there not being as many fawns around from this year which would be contributing to less deer. I’m trying to see how many youngsters I actually see but since hunting season started everyone is hiding.

[TSIPP]

I’m kinda slow in creating this thread but I was pondering on posting about deer a couple weeks ago, drawn mule deer is what he had a tag for, it’s kinda 50/50 whitetail and mule out this way, not many of either breed, checking cows this summer and I’ve seen a few more fur piles than normal but nothing crazy.

[ajl]

During the winter of 20-21 we had 25 deer in the yard eating hay because snow was deep in the fields. Used electric fence to protect hay for the first time since we moved to this location. Since then have not seen as many deer on our farm but they are around further out. Still see them in the ditch after being hit on the road. White tail are more common here but have seen some mulies this summer. Buddy comes to hunt our farm and he shot a couple of small deer last year here as it was the end of the season. He hunts here at the end of the season as it is close by. The coyote population has exploded here east of Edmonton too and you see them all the time now. Likely has gotten a few fawns the last couple of springs.

[WiltonRanch]

Coyote and deer populations fluctuate. CWD was the black swan which threw things out of balance. Farmed and wild elk can be blamed for spreading that as well as every other disease like TB. Even ticks have raised hell with deer.

[helmsdale]

Couple issues here.
1) CWD has been going around.
2) Absolute explosion in population sometime after 2016. There is NO WAY I could have ever stored grain on the ground in covered piles, or bags like I did in 2016 for the last 6 years. That explosion brought alot of predators, alot of disease, and ALOT of competition for scarce resources
3) Last winter was incredibly tough on them. Some time around the beginning of February, my dog's pretty much quit eating dog food and the yard was completely littered with bones, skulls, and guts. 1.5ft of snow on the level plus 1" of freezing rain made it incredibly difficult for them to dig for food.
4) The pastures resembled the moon here for most of the summer, and the majority of dugouts are depleted to minor mud-bogs now so deer were pushed off in search of food and water.
5) There were hardly any new ones born. There had to be a high percentage of abortions as fawns were very scarce this spring.

This area was a hunters paradise the last 5 or 6 years, but I'll be surprised if even 20% of the tags get used.

[littledoggie]

No shortage of deer here. No shortage of coyotes either. The deer are breeding like rabbits. Rabbits, skunks and now porcupines are all showing up again after a long hiatus.

[jamesb]

Lots of deer here in my area of SE Sask. Populations have come back the last few years with less snow and easier winters