In my area, game has an awful lot of ground between the animals.
I was speaking to another CGNer last night about this and he also is noticing a severe lack of game in the usual areas.
Predation is only part of the issue, but there are other factors.
Suther mentions fire. Fire is historically a good thing for game, other than at the time the fire is raging. It's been my experience that hunting fire ravaged areas the following year after the fire and for the next several years is a very productive way to hunt. Lots of feed growing because of he nutrients released into the soil by the fire.
The recent "drought" years, which are normal for our region "Okanogon Valley" have had an effect on fawn survival.
That and constant encroachment of housing projects, hundreds of miles of 3 meter high fences along major highways, which inhibit the animals from getting to traditional sources of water, following biologically traditional migration routes, etc. The fences are put up to protect the animals as well as motorists, I don't know which is worse?
Clear cutting to eradicate Pine Beetles has gotten out of control, now that Europe has switched from Natural Gas to Wood Pellets to heat homes and generate electricity, because of the war between Russia/Ukraine. Areas which were unprofitable to harvest are now "gold" especially to smaller operators, many of which have grown to be large operators over the last three years.
The size and vast numbers of these clear cuts are devastating the ecological balances of many areas. There are all sorts of small seeps, streams, ponds and even larger creeks that quickly dry up completely after all of the trees have been removed and the areas scarified.
It takes at least a decade for these areas to start holding back the water, sometimes it just doesn't come back in a sustainable manner.
The animals in these areas either move out completely or become easy prey for predators and hunters and because of the lack of cover, etc, they die off or get killed.
I showed some photos of a few resident Mule Deer in our area to a fellow last night. There are four Deer in the photo.
They came over to check out my dog, which they're familiar with, and I was able to take pics with my phone from about a meter away.
One of the Does is an obvious cross breed Mule/White Tail. She's lighter in color, facial markings, smaller ears, smaller body, etc are quite obvious. Sadly, these cross bred Deer, male or female are "sterile" come into heat a couple of weeks before the pure Mule Deer, draw off the bucks and the males tend to be more aggressive, just like White Tail bucks, so chase the Mule Deer bucks off from their herds.
I don't know what the ratios are, but I've witnessed a time when there weren't any White Tail Deer in our region, which had what appeared to be an unlimited supply of Mule Deer, to a region now mostly populated by White Tails, and Mule Deer becoming oddities.
Once prevalent and numerous herds of Mule Deer, counting in the hundreds of animals per herd, in the fields and on the south slopes of hillsides are now non existent.
We've also been inundated by Wolves, and I do believe they've definitely contributed to the present situation, but not to the extent we've been witnessing over the past five years.
It's impossible, in our region, to look at any area and not see clear cuts, some of which have regrown, from fifty year ago planting, covering 50% or more of the view.
Those older clear cuts, which have regenerated well are just now coming back to what they had once been. They still aren't as productive or providing the protection to the ecosystems they once supported.
