New DNR study hopes to settle debate surrounding deer predators
by RON SEELY madison.com, April 12, 2010 [here]
The number of gray wolves in Wisconsin has grown to nearly 700, prompting concerns among hunters about predation on the deer herd.
Hunters and wolves in Wisconsin share an uneasy history, and the problem is that they like to do the same thing - kill and eat deer.
The numbers of deer killed by hunters each year is well known; they shot about 196,000 during last fall’s nine-day gun deer season. But despite the speculation one might hear from a barstool at a rural tavern, the full extent of the wolf’s impact on the state’s more than 1 million deer has never moved beyond anecdote.
Now, however, science will be brought to bear on that question: How many whitetail deer in northern and central Wisconsin are killed by wolves, bears and even bobcats and coyotes?
The state Department of Natural Resources, working with researchers from the UW-Madison, has embarked on a multi-year, $1.2 million study that will track hundreds of bucks and fawns to see how they die. … [more]
Note: Does God look down on the boys in the barroom, mainly forsaken but surely not judged? Jacks, kings, and aces their faces in wine. Do, Lord, deliver our kind. — Robert Hunter