Deer Study: Watch For Marked Deer.

[DonBo]

Hunters in Sawyer, Price, Rusk, Shawano, Waupaca, Outagamie counties please be aware of marked deer.

With the 2011 hunting season officially underway, be on the lookout for marked deer in your area! As many of you know, last winter we initiated ambitious deer research projects across northern (Sawyer, Price, Rusk counties) and east-central (Shawano, Waupaca, Outagamie counties) Wisconsin that are designed to evaluate survival and cause-specific mortality of adult and fawn white-tailed deer. Part of this effort involved marking (with radiocollars and ear tags) LOTS of deer across these areas. With the start of the early archery season several weeks ago, we have now entered an important phase of the project that involves collecting harvest data from marked deer.

I wanted to take a moment to communicate the importance of providing data at the time of registraton from ANY marked (radiocollared or ear-tagged) deer that may be harvested this fall, particularly deer from our northern forest and eastern farmland study areas. We are graciously asking you to help us by providing some very basic mortality data, including the your name and phone number, deer fate (e.g., harvested, found dead in the woods, roadkill, etc.), date of fate (e.g., date deer was harvested, found dead in woods, observed dead on side of road, etc.), deer location, ear tag numbers, radiocollar frequency, and sex of the animal. We appreciate your assistance in helping to collect critical harvest data from our research animals. Thank you all very much and please don't hesitate to contact Chris Jacques at 608-221-6358 if you have questions.