Bad News on the Alberta CWD Front

Seems to be spreading. When I was at Wainwright last year, one of the Co's shot a big buck still in velvet in December that was behaving eratically, walking around in a tight circle. That was in Dec 2007, no report of CWD on that map from 2007.
 
Pi$$ poor management on the governments part will result in Pi$$ poor solutions to the problem. They protected mulies until they became a plague and now mother nature is taking her course.

Put a bounty on mulies and let's get at'er. We are sick of feeding the darn things.
 
The really bad news is that the gov't doesn't seem to be going to spend much money on CWD action this year.

The MLA who is finance minister is apparently from the east of Alberta and his son is an outfitter in the area.

That should have nothing to do with SRD doing its job properly buy it may be a big factor.
 
hillbillyreefer said:
Put a bounty on mulies and let's get at'er. We are sick of feeding the darn things.
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Feeding actually worsens the CWD problem. Both healthy and infected deer congregate at sites where they can get easy access to food. The infected and sick deer tend to stay there. Their presence and droppings passes the prions to healthy deer, and so on.
 
Circular walking and running can be observed in ungulates that have gone blind as well. There is also whirling disease which I believe is caused by brain worm.
 
We don't feed them. They eat the stored feed for the cattle. If and when we get a decent snowfall things are going to get tough on them. Maybe that will take care of some of the problem
 
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scott_r said:
Hopefully you guys in Alberta don't go at it the same way its done here in Sask, if so you may never see trophy mulies in certain areas in your lifetime.
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ALBERTA has allready had very large scale culls...

From what I seen in Southern Sk. there is NOTHING wrong with Mule Deer population.

One morning we counted 13 bucks in one 3 mile X 3 mile square pasture. None of us had a buck tag either.

We ended up shooting 9 deer. 3 of which were decent bucks.

We seen plenty of BIGGER bucks but never got a chance at them.

I don't think there is any worry about the Mule Deer population in that Zone.

The farmers/ranchers we VERY happy to have hunters thinning the herd.

Which zones/areas have you seen affected by CWD management?

The only mistake Saskatchewan ever made is/was allowing outfitters to BAIT Deer......that is NOT fair chase....never has been....never will....and it is NOT hunting.
 
It has always amazed how people will disregard the health of a poulation of animals to make it easier for them to get a trophy.
No wonder we are such easy targets for the anti hunting crowd.
 
blacklab said:
It has always amazed how people will disregard the health of a poulation of animals to make it easier for them to get a trophy.
No wonder we are such easy targets for the anti hunting crowd.
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keep in mind that the best "trophies" are also the dominant breeders, so the presence of trophy animals is actually important for the health of the herd as well.
 
It has always amazed how people will disregard the health of a poulation of animals to make it easier for them to get a trophy.
No wonder we are such easy targets for the anti hunting crowd.
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HUH?
 
I have the local Wainwright Tattler open right in front of me. There has been a CWD positive on a adult male mule deer. The local biologist and SRD are undecided as to course of action. There is no plans for a CWD cull at this time. I hope to he11 they don't cull. Anyone familiar with WMU 234 remembers what the hunting was like before the culls...now it is a wasteland.

Also, the Coop has a sale on Betty Crocker fruit snacks, and the Rustlers handed the Viking Gas Kings their a$$ in a decisive 9-3 victory. Go team.

Hakx
 
So lets concentrate our hunting pressure on the breeders, mostly in the rut so we don't have to work so hard. We do this with goal being deer numbers instead of a healthy herd.
 
220Swifty said:
keep in mind that the best "trophies" are also the dominant breeders, so the presence of trophy animals is actually important for the health of the herd as well.
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Biologists studying the breeding behaviour of 'trophy' whitetails have proven this to be incorrect.
 
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