D.E.E.R. Project Captures

On April 21st, I had the opportunity to help with the D.E.E.R. Project again. Since it is Spring time the purpose of these captures are to assess whether or not the does are pregnant. The plan was to recapture all of the collared Mule Deer and Elk and to replace the collars from the deceased ones during this past Winter. They also planned to capture about 30 coyotes and collar them to see if predation from them was the cause to 99% of the fawn deaths south of Rock Springs in the past year.

I was only able to attend this day because my body decided to be evil and cause me to have constipation for the next like four days. Anyways, while I was suffering through the beginnings of it and was not sure what it was, I was able to help with a few animals.

The day was really cold and had snowed the night before so I was wearing a million layers. I did have one deer bruise the heck out of my shins because I was in charge of holding that ones legs down so no one else would get hurt and the deer. Off and on I took up my normal position of measure the length of the captured animal along with the width just behind the front legs. I had to help a little with collect fecal samples. One of the times, they asked me if I wanted to put an elbow glove on to put my whole fist inside an Elk because no one else's hands were small enough. Haha Now there puts a whole new meaning to fisting it. Sorry could not resist and I did feel really bad for the poor Elk especially since I was not able to find any fecal matter.
These two pictures below are the collars and the VITs (Vaginal Implant Transmitters).

The VITs are a tracking device that goes off when removed from the body once the deer births birth. The device is implanted through a PCP pipe that is injected into the vagina. 

It is a pretty simple process and the only downfall is if the tracker does not work. Sometimes the mothers will just pull out the VIT because the end of the antenna barely sticks out of their backsides. So once the VIT detects light it will send a signal to a satellite where the biologist can collect all of the point locations and hope they find a fawn there. 

The picture above is an ultrasound being performed on a doe and found that she was carrying twins which is more typical. Most of the animals captured were pregnant and hardly had any body fat. I truly don't know how they survive out there in these conditions while carrying young. All of them your also shedding off their winter coats so they all felt really "nappy". Haha I learned that from my black friends in Oklahoma. 

All in all, I believe that the time the graduate crew was out there they were able to capture all of the animals along with coyotes during the time allotted to them. Remember from last falls blog that I told you all that helicopters are not cheap to fly along with all of the tracking equipment used in this project. So everything has to be planned out well before in advanced. The link below will take you to Winter 2017 report from this project. 

D.E.E.R. Capture Winter 2017 Report

Here is a video for your entertainment.