Everybody is worried about the mule deer population in Wyoming but the game and fish still allocates doe tags. I am no biologist but it doesn't make sense to me.
I do like that they are mapping and purchasing the migration routes and installing crossovers and crossunders for the animals to follow during their migration. I feel it is a step in the right direction and saves a lot of animals from vehicular death.
I think what people get confused about it competition for food and carry capacity. When these critters lose habitat to due human expansion there becomes a higher demand is smaller areas . Thus leaving smaller amounts of nutrition for these critters. This leads to poorer health and lower survival rate. Add on a severe winter and it can be disastrous for them. Add competition from elk in which create a higher browse line and the mule deer suffer. Here in Colorado the oak brush and cheat grass is running wild and is to no use to these critters so loss of habitat again. So culling does is a good management tool to create less competition to keep the heard healthier.. Think of nutrition as the key factor.
Look at this way, when the covid hit in march/ april what happen to the grocery stores ? This country has a carrying capacity also and when just a little tweak hits we run out. Even we as americans that are over feed & under worked still have the basic instinct to ingest as much as we can when the panic button is hit. Same as the mule deer. So again nutrition.
I will say it is a trying time for wildlife biologist with drought, loss of habitat, CWD, adding apex predators to the equation and a high demand from sportsman to harvest mule deer. It is high order to save them for hunt able populations ! So what I think biologist are trying to do is manage what we have at a heathy population due to outside forces. Again a tall order for them.
