Mule deer are migrating down from the high country to find food on their winter ranges. If you are traveling Highway 789 south through Baggs and notice mule deer with bright yellow tags on their ears or white collars on their necks, don’t be alarmed. Those tagged deer are part of important monitoring the Wyoming Game and Fish Department is conducting on the Baggs Mule Deer Herd.

            Baggs Wildlife Biologist Tony Mong says the project is an extension of the on-going big game underpass and fencing project completed in 2009 north of Baggs.

            “The fencing and wildlife underpass have proved to be a tremendous success in saving mule deer and people from vehicle collisions,” Mong says. “Close to 6,000 mule deer used the underpass during the fall and spring migration of 2010 and 2011. I believe another benefit to this deer-vehicle collision prevention technique is the possibility for wildlife monitoring. This technique has the potential to provide managers a great deal more information on individual use of underpasses, deer survival, population estimations, and distribution on the landscape.”

            Mong, along with local sportsmen, game wardens, and fellow biologists with the Game and Fish, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Forest Service are trapping mule deer and placing ear tags on mostly does and fawns to determine annual survival of deer using the underpass using mark-resight methods. Mong also hopes to determine the amount of “back and forth” movement in the underpass within a migration season and determine dispersal patterns from the underpass.

            “Over the next five years we will be trapping up to 100 deer per year and attaching the traditional visual ear tags, and on a subset of deer a white collar to make sure we achieve a viable mark-resight sample size.”

              Mong said there is currently an underpass trail camera that works well at capturing wildlife using the underpass.  A web based “live” trail video camera system has also been installed within the underpass to allow “real time” observation of the underpass.  In addition to “real time” observations, all video is being recorded for later analysis. “We will actually be able to see the tagged deer moving back and forth through the underpasses which will allow us to get detailed information on annual survival, detection probabilities, and possibly population estimates,”  Mong said.

              Mong baited mule deer in late November and determined one site to be used for trapping deer with a drop net. In late November the initial trapping site was baited with apple pulp and trapping operations began the first week of December.

              Mong and his colleagues hide in a photography blind in front of the trapping site and wait for the deer to come underneath the drop net to feed on the apple pulp. When the deer are busy feeding, Mong presses a release button and the electro-magnetic-operated net falls on top of them. Workers then work as fast as they can to take a blood sample and place an ear tag on the deer before releasing it.

              “This is a very exciting project,” Mong says. “Not only is it exciting to trap the deer and handle them, but it is also exciting to anticipate how this project will allow us to gather information that will help us make management decisions for the Baggs mule deer herd.”