We are being invaded!


Guest andymansavage

Recommended Posts

Guest andymansavage

They have been in the northeast corner of the state for a while now, but in the last few years they are finding their way over the mountians and heading south. I have never seen one, but they are coming for sure. I wouldn't mind shooting a big one.

Andy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest andymansavage

There is a lot of debate out here on the expansion of the whitetail population and its effects on mule deer. There are places where they seem to coexist well , but there are also examples where the mile deer population is negatively affected by their new neighbors. As stated above, whitetail do breed muley does and mule deer bucks do not seem to breed whitetail does. I hope they coexist well here. I would hate to see further problems with our mule deer herds. I have never seen a live whitey buck and that would be cool.

Andy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hear that the whitetail bucks will breed the mulie does before the mulie bucks will...... So the whitetails will mess with your mulie population

Have heard something along those lines too. From what I understand, whitetails are more aggressive around the rut and with breeding than mulies are.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've never been one to advocate breaking game laws, but here's what I encountered a few years back when I went on a mule deer hunt in the Big Bend area of West Texas.

The landowner was giving us our instructions, telling us what areas of the ranch had been productive, etc. and the last thing he said was "And by the way, if you see a whitetail, please shoot it immediately." One of the guys said that he had already used all of his whitetail tags and the landowner informed us that it didn't matter whether we tagged the deer or not, just get it killed. We were all really skeptical about the whole deal so he pulls out his cell phone and calls the local Game Warden. The warden tells us THE SAME THING! :eek:

It seems that there had been a steady encroachment of whitetails from the east, and the mule deer population had really suffered from it. Shooting all whitetails on site was the only way they had found to slow that trend.

We never spotted a whitetail on that trip, so it wasn't a problem for us. But those people definitely saw the whole situation as a big deal and were prepared to take dramatic steps to try to limit the "damages" from the whitetails.

Hopefully the climate, terrain, food sources, etc in Utah will be more of a natural barrier and the whitetails will never become a threat to the mule deer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Younggun308

That's a nice buck, you shouldn't feel bad about having some whitetails, and besides, in 10 years, there'll probably be fewer deer, and more turkeys, and 10 years later, vice versa, I guess that's just the way populations fluctuate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.