I heard there has been an unusually large amount of snow in the state. I read that this will effect the calves of many animals in the state, potentially effecting heard sizes.How is this effecting the bison population? Is the snow going to push them to hunting ground sooner or will it unfortunately kill a portion of them? I did put in for the bison draw this year and was wondering why they are not offer cows and calves to hunt any longer.

Snow almost all gone in Northern Wis.

Winter storm blew in last night went from high 70's.

To 20 this morning high winds and snow.

We had one of the top 3 winters for snow fall this year.

Colorado may cut their tags by 40%;
https://www.denverpost.com/202...fe-hunting-licenses/

I live about 30 minutes from the Southwest Wyoming border. We have had record snow and it has not been good for our deer and antelope. I have a lot of points for deer, elk, and Wyoming antelope and I will not apply, due to the winter kill. I still have 3-4 feet of snow in my yard but it is finally starting to melt a bit.

I am not too sure on the bison but I would suspect that they have done better.

I've seen photos of stacked up dead pronghorn. I assume they starved.

the Antelope have been having a rough go the last few years.
this winter is gonna cut their numbers down drastically.

I live due west of Wyoming and this has been the roughest winter I've seen since the mid-90's maybe even 83-84.

I went out yesterday just before the latest snow storm blew in, and looked for Deer/Elk tracks down along the river bottoms where they normally hang out.
nuthin, even the deer that live in town are being hard hit.

the birds are having it just as tough, I had a flock of Chuckars living under one of my cedar tree's for a few weeks last month.
they never come in the neighborhood from the big field south of me.

I'm afraid I won't be hunting anything at all this year.

https://cowboystatedaily.com/2...-wyoming-winterkill/


OUTDOORS
More Than 10,000 Antelope Hunting Tags Cut In Wake Of Brutal Wyoming Winterkill

With the ultimate antelope death toll from the worst winter in recent memory still unknown, game managers Tuesday agreed to cut more than 10,000 hunting tags for the struggling herds this fall.


Mark Heinz
April 18, 2023
4 min read


With the ultimate antelope death toll from the worst winter in recent memory still unknown, game managers Tuesday agreed to cut more than 10,000 hunting tags for the struggling herds this fall.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department offered 41,145 antelope tags for the 2022 season. This year, 30,855, or 10,290 fewer, will be available for limited quota drawings for the fall hunting seasons.

There also will be some cuts to tags for mule deer, though not nearly as dramatic, amounting to about 4,000 fewer limited quota tags. In some areas, the number of tags for whitetail deer should increase.

“You’re going to see significant reductions, even in opportunities for bucks, in those areas that were most affected,” agency director Brian Nesvik told members of the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission.

The commission sets hunting seasons and tag quotas, and on Tuesday accepted Game and Fish’s recommendations for changes to fall 2023 deer and antelope seasons.


Brutal Winter

This winter has been brutally hard on mule deer and antelope, especially in Carbon, Sublette and Sweetwater counties, which are home to some world-class herds of both species.

To make matters worse, a rare strain of pneumonia also has killed hundreds more antelope between Pinedale and Rock Springs, Nesvik said, although the outbreak so far appears to be contained to only that area.

The total number of animals that have starved or frozen to death this winter remains unknown, he said. However, in one radio-collared study group, 60% of the adult animals and 95% of the fawns died.

This winter has been particularly bad because the herds’ winter range in the Red Desert, the Baggs area and elsewhere was hammered with unusually deep snowfall.

It partially melted and then refroze between hot and cold spells, leaving a hardened crust that trapped animals in place. They were unable to paw through to get to buried forage.

Differing Views

Hunters and outfitters who commented during the meeting largely supported the idea of scaling hunting seasons back in the wake of massive winterkill, but had some different views about the details.

Bruce Lawson said that trimming deer tag allocations and shortening hunting seasons in some areas doesn’t go far enough.

Describing a recent drive through the Muddy Gap area and on through Baggs and into Colorado, he said that, “I looked out and could see just specks of mule deer in a sea of white.”

In southcentral Wyoming, some seasons should be canceled, he said.

“Close it, totally. Let’s give these deer a break,” he said.

Fellow deer hunter Logan Hicks said he agreed that seasons should be cut back, but not shut down. Bucks can still be hunted without hurting the herds’ chances to bounce back, he said.

“Hunting male mule deer, or male anything, isn’t going to have that big of an effect on herds,” he said.


Dave Allen said that as the owner of a car wash and small outfitting business, cutting tags too deep could hurt because deer seasons are typically “my busiest time of the year.”

There was also some concern expressed over how predators could affect already depleted game herds.

Jess Johnson, spokeswoman for the Wyoming Wildlife Federation, said the long-term focus should be on improving deer and antelope habitat.

“Habitat, habitat, habitat,” she said. “Yes, worry about predators, but worry about habitat more.”

Those Pesky Whitetails

Boosts in the number of tags available for whitetail deer in some areas were well-received.

Though smaller than mule deer, whitetails can be more adaptable. They can also enter mule deer habitat, said rancher and Wyoming Senate President Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower.

“Any area where you don’t keep the pressure on them, the whitetail will follow and take over mule deer habitat,” he said.

A bill proposing that Game and Fish manage mule deer and whitetail deer hunting seasons separately failed before the Legislature earlier this year. However, Driskill said the agency should still consider pushing for that change.

“We don’t put antelope and elk together (in hunting management), and mule deer and whitetail are different species,” he said.

Whitetails have been prolific in the Black Hills region where he lives, Driskill said, and he welcomes seeing them hunted more aggressively there.

https://cowboystatedaily.com/2...rds-out-of-the-park/



OUTDOORS

More Than 1,000 Yellowstone Bison Killed As Harsh Winter Pushes Herds Out Of The Park

An exceptionally hard winter that has been hammering Wyoming’s wildlife outside of Yellowstone Park has also been pushing more Bison out of the Park and into Montana. Roughly 1,000 bison have been killed by hunters, mostly from Native American tribes.


Mark Heinz
April 05, 2023
4 min read


Yellowstone Park tourists sometimes must learn the hard way that bison are essentially organic tanks with hooves instead of tracks.

And yet the current winter has been so bad, even the mighty bison are being driven out of the park on the Montana side, where roughly 1,000 have been shot by hunters.

Culling bison is sometimes necessary, and most of the killing this year has been through special hunts for members of several Native American tribes, Montana State Veterinarian Marty Zaluski told Cowboy State Daily.

The number of bison fleeing the park is unprecedented, National Park Service spokeswoman Morgan Warthin told cowboy State Daily.

"The winter of 2022/2023 has been the largest migration out of the park in recent history (decades); likely due to heavy snows and very cold temperatures causing large numbers of bison to move to lower elevations in the Gardiner Basin to find food," she said.

Bison began leaving Yellowstone in large numbers in December, Warthin said.

That month, 13 bison, likely driven by hunger to the roadside, were struck and killed by a semi-truck near West Yellowstone, Montana. Zaluski told Cowboy State Daily at the time that it was the worst such accident he'd ever seen.

Winter Hits Hard

Montana's regular bison hunting season ran from Nov. 15- Feb. 15, and only a handful of the huge critters were killed by non-tribal hunters then, Zaluski said.

The Yellowstone Herd was up to roughly 6,000 bison when this winter hit, he said.

As one of the worst in recent memories, this winter has killed tens of thousands of antelope and deer in central and southwest Wyoming, and there have been reports that large numbers of elk which are usually hardy winter survivors have also been dying.

Wildlife officials in northwest Colorado reported similar winterkill losses.

And Yellowstone hasnt escaped either, Zaluski said. Unusually heavy snowfall has covered much of the park.

"West Yellowstone is buried," he said.

To make matters worse a warm spell in December caused some of the surface snow to melt, only to freeze back over in a hard crust when temperatures plunged again.

"Bison are incredibly resilient and by virtue of their sheer mass can dig and pound through snow to get to food that other species just cant reach," Zaluski said. However, the snow in Yellowstone has been so bad, even they have decided to give up and move on.

How badly the park's other wildlife has been suffering isn't known, Warthin said, though apparently some bison have perished.

"Regarding winterkill numbers, we don't do park-wide surveys for winterkill. However, we are seeing some winterkill during our wolf study monitoring (both bison and elk) and expect more given the severity of the winter," she said.



John Dutton Would Be Very Upset

Bison crossing into Montana has long been a point of contention, particularly for that state's ranchers.

A large portion of the Yellowstone Bison herd carries brucellosis a disease that causes pregnant cattle to spontaneously abort their calves. So, ranchers dont want the bison anywhere near their cows.

Montana established a "tolerance zone," where bison are free to wander out of the park and into the Gardiner Basin, without the fear of cattle being infected, Warthin said.

However, the severe winter has been driving large numbers well beyond the tolerance zone, Zaluski said.

They've even been pushing into the Paradise Valley region which is the setting for the fictional Dutton Family Ranch in the popular streaming service series "Yellowstone." So, it's likely that the family patriarch, John Dutton (played by Kevin Costner) wouldn't be pleased by the current turn of events.

Rigorous Testing

Some of the bison leaving the park that haven't been killed by hunters have been rounded up and are being kept in pens, where they're undergoing intensive testing for brucellosis, Zaluski said. Some that test positive will be killed.

Others, once certified disease-free, will be shipped off and released on tribal lands near Fort Peck, Montana, he said. The culling and relocation could amount to several hundred more animals being cut from the Yellowstone herd.

But bison numbers should rebound quickly, Zaluski added.

"A good rule of thumb is that they increase their numbers by about 13 - 14% per year," he said.

Drove through the state last week still plenty of deep snow. Tons of dead animals along the road

quote:

Originally posted by Kathi:
John Dutton Would Be Very Upset

Bison crossing into Montana has long been a point of contention, particularly for that state's ranchers.

A large portion of the Yellowstone Bison herd carries brucellosis a disease that causes pregnant cattle to spontaneously abort their calves. So, ranchers dont want the bison anywhere near their cows.

Understandable. I think I remember reading that the bison caught it from ranchers' cattle to begin with.

It everwhere in the Pacific NW I think, it certainly in Idaho, its been a long cold winter, some areas just got the cold other got record cold and snow..Lots of whining locally..folks just tired of the cold, but warmer weather is on its way..