Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Monday 3 July 2017

Harsh winter took heavy toll on wildlife across western U.S.

By BOB MOEN McDonald, wildlife division tags will be hard on his busi-
Associated Press administrator with the Mon- ness, which includes deer,
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — tana Fish, Wildlife and Parks antelope and elk hunts.
Wildlife suffered higher than Department. “Luckily, we can still work
normal losses this winter Nevada saw near average with some elk,” Clark said.
in severe weather across wildlife losses statewide, However, outfitters have to
the western United States, while a few isolated areas be careful not to overhunt
where the toll included the in the northeast part of the elk and overload their fall
deaths of all known fawns state had slightly higher hunting camps with too
in one Wyoming deer herd than average mortality, many hunters to make up
and dozens of endangered said Tom Donham, a Ne- for the decline in deer hunt-
bighorn sheep in California. vada Department of Wild- ing, he said.
Wildlife managers in Colo- life biologist. “It just takes away from the
rado, Utah, Idaho, Oregon Wildlife managers are re- quality of the hunt if you
and Washington also re- sponding by reducing got too many hunters in
ported higher losses of ani- hunting permits in the hard- camp,” Clark said.
mals in the wake of one of hit areas. Biologists say the wildlife
the coldest and snowiest “There will be less hunting herds eventually should re-
winters in decades. Parts of opportunity this coming cover with the help of re-
the Rockies saw snowfall as In this Jan. 18, 2017, file photo provided by the Oregon fall for sure, and the peo- duced hunting and a return
late as mid-June. Department of Fish and Wildlife, elk feed at the Wenaha Wildlife ple that do get a license, to at least normal weather
Area near Troy, Ore.
“This year we kind of had Associated Press whether it’s a general li- conditions next winter.
all the factors that we for the weakened animals from the Pacific Ocean, cense or a limited quota However, forecasters say
don’t want — we had by hardening the snow. where a weak and unusu- tag, I don’t think there’s go- it’s too early to predict how
deep snow, we had peri- Mule deer in several Rocky ally short-lived La Nina oc- ing to be any doubt they’re next winter will play out.
ods of fairly cold weather, Mountain states and elk in curred. going to notice less animals “What happens in the fu-
subzero, and then we also eastern Washington were In California, the Sierra Ne- on the landscape,” Lanka ture depends a lot on
had some crusting on top hit hard. Wyoming was ex- vada bighorn sheep, which said. what kind of winter we see
of that snow,” said Roger pecting above-normal loss- is listed as an endangered Mike Clark, owner of Greys next year,” Phillips said. “If
Phillips, spokesman for the es among antelope as well, species, lost an estimated River Outfitters in western we have back-to-back
Idaho Fish and Game De- although it didn’t have an 40 to 60 animals. Wyoming, said the loss of hard winters, it could be
partment. accurate accounting yet. “We’re not including any mule deer and antelope tough.”q
Wildlife managers have Wyoming last saw compa- predation or normal mor-
been assessing the dam- rable wildlife deaths over tality or any other kind of
age using radio collars and three decades ago, said losses; that’s just from the
surveys of herds following a Bob Lanka, supervisor of snow, from getting trapped
winter in which many parts statewide wildlife and habi- up in the snow and not
of the West recorded re- tat management program having food, some of them
cord snowfall, including with the Wyoming Game starving and then some of
places where deer, prong- and Fish Department. them directly impacted by
horn antelope and elk mi- “It’s been a long, long time avalanches,” said Jason
grate each fall to escape since we experienced this Holley, supervising wildlife
the harsher mountain win- kind of loss,” he said. biologist with the Califor-
ters. Meteorologist David Lipson nia Department of Fish and
Prolonged snow cover on of the National Weather Wildlife.
winter grounds made it Service in Riverton blamed Montana wildlife were
difficult for wildlife to find the rough winter on “un- spared the deadly condi-
food, and spells of bitter usually strong rivers of mois- tions seen in neighboring
cold made matters worse ture” flowing into the West states, according to Ken