Henry county Doe CWD

[BSK]

I'm a firm believer in in reducing opportunities for the spread of CWD, such as transport of game laws/rules. I also favor STRONGLY discouraging the feeding of deer, salt licks, or use of bait piles in CWD areas. However, I'm not a believer in the "greatly reduce the deer density" theory. People point to the IL data, yet that data comes without control. You can also look at other states who have tried the "reduce the deer density" tactic and it has not stopped the spread of CWD. In my personal/professional opinion, trying to knock out the deer population to slow the spread of CWD is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

CWD is here to stay. It will slowly spread throughout the whitetails' range. The only answer is letting Nature take her course, and allow a natural immunity to develop and foster. Sadly for today's hunters, that will probably take centuries. But Nature always finds a way.

 

[tnanh]

Completely agree with the above. The mass killing in Fayette and Hardeman counties may have slightly slowed the spread but it has not stopped it. If it is spreading anyway just let the deer seasons continue as they have traditionally and implement the other rules. People will throw rocks at me but I think hunters being trophy hungry (QDM) contributes some to CWD. When it was first discovered in Tennessee TWRA reported higher prevalence rates in bucks, especially older bucks. They travel further during the rut and spread the disease further in the process. Ames Plantation is a prime example for the management and maybe mismanagement of CWD. They have lowered their trophy standards and have still lost membership since CWD, Deer sightings have greatly decreased and the monster bucks that were once there are nowhere near as prevalent. They have also killed a lot of deer even when the season is over to mitigate CWD and it has not appeared to have worked.

 

[gobblegrunt]

The mass killing of deer will not stop CWD. I really don't understand the logic behind this at all. Hunting out west where it originated is still thriving. Is it not?

 

[DeerCamp]

I think I read the deer was sick.

 

[TheLBLman]

. . . . . . .
However, I'm not a believer in the "greatly reduce the deer density" theory.
. . . . . . . In my personal/professional opinion, trying to knock out the deer population to slow the spread of CWD is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

CWD is here to stay. It will slowly spread throughout the whitetails' range. The only answer is letting Nature take her course, and allow a natural immunity to develop and foster.

EXACTLY.

 

[TheLBLman]

People will throw rocks at me but I think hunters being trophy hungry (QDM) contributes some to CWD. When it was first discovered in Tennessee TWRA reported higher prevalence rates in bucks, especially older bucks. They travel further during the rut and spread the disease further in the process.

Well, I shall cast the first stone at you

I believe this is misinformation.
While it is true that older rutting bucks MAY SOMETIMES travel greater linear distances than younger rutting bucks, this is not always the case, as many mature bucks actually decrease their rut range.

But, it almost doesn't matter in view of other factors, particularly the MUCH GREATER DISTANCE that YOUNG BUCKS DISPERSE from their birth areas. This typically greatly exceeds the roaming "rut range" of bucks at ANY age.

QDM and/or "trophy" buck management contributing to the spread of CWD?
May be just the opposite.

Those managing for older bucks also tend to manage for a healthier deer herd, including very active "doe management", attempting to have a closer balance in the buck:doe ratios.

So how may the higher doe harvest on QDM properties play into the spread of CWD?

For starters, orphaned male fawns tend to NOT disperse from their birth areas.
This should mean that QDM properties reduce the spread of CWD since fewer yearling bucks disperse the great distances?

Just saying, I don't believe living buck travels have much to do with the spread of CWD, but to the extent it may, I would be more concerned with yearly buck dispersal than any bucks' rut ranges.

Lastly, here's why maybe nothing we can do in terms of deer management may matter:

CWD prions live on for years & years wherever an infected deer died (or it's animal "parts" ended up).

Worse, these CWD prions are then carried around in the fecal material of the scavengers which eat the animal or its remaining "parts". Scavengers, such as coyotes, often travel a greater range year-round than rutting bucks in November.

Worst of all, one of the largest consumers of CWD infected dead deer carcasses are buzzards.
Buzzards may weekly "hunt" over areas larger than an entire county, and think nothing of flying a short distance across the Tennessee River.

Lastly, buzzards and other raptor scavengers are migratory.
They often travel hundreds of miles in a week, leaving deposits of CWD prions along their journeys.
And it's not just buzzards, but also hawks & eagles as well.

Sometimes doing nothing is better than the somethings we do to FEEL better about a situation.

 

[tnanh]

Well, I shall cast the first stone at you

I believe this is misinformation.
While it is true that older rutting bucks MAY SOMETIMES travel greater linear distances than younger rutting bucks, this is not always the case, as many mature bucks actually decrease their rut range.

But, it almost doesn't matter in view of other factors, particularly the MUCH GREATER DISTANCE that YOUNG BUCKS DISPERSE from their birth areas. This typically greatly exceeds the roaming "rut range" of bucks at ANY age.

QDM and/or "trophy" buck management contributing to the spread of CWD?
May be just the opposite.

Those managing for older bucks also tend to manage for a healthier deer herd, including very active "doe management", attempting to have a closer balance in the buck:doe ratios.

So how may the higher doe harvest on QDM properties play into the spread of CWD?

For starters, orphaned male fawns tend to NOT disperse from their birth areas.
This should mean that QDM properties reduce the spread of CWD since fewer yearling bucks disperse the great distances?

Just saying, I don't believe living buck travels have much to do with the spread of CWD, but to the extent it may, I would be more concerned with yearly buck dispersal than any bucks' rut ranges.

Lastly, here's why maybe nothing we can do in terms of deer management may matter:

CWD prions live on for years & years wherever an infected deer died (or it's animal "parts" ended up).

Worse, these CWD prions are then carried around in the fecal material of the scavengers which eat the animal or its remaining "parts". Scavengers, such as coyotes, often travel a greater range year-round than rutting bucks in November.

Worst of all, one of the largest consumers of CWD infected dead deer carcasses are buzzards.
Buzzards may weekly "hunt" over areas larger than an entire county, and think nothing of flying a short distance across the Tennessee River.

Lastly, buzzards and other raptor scavengers are migratory.
They often travel hundreds of miles in a week, leaving deposits of CWD prions along their journeys.
And it's not just buzzards, but also hawks & eagles as well.

Sometimes doing nothing is better than the somethings we do to FEEL better about a situation.

I like the way you think and I do not mind someone casting stones. Nothing in your comment suggests the kill em all mentality and I like this line of thinking. I just don't want it to go back to when I was a kid in a lot of counties. If you saw a deer you were a deer hunter. If nature is going to kill them there is nothing we can do to prevent it. Nature kills them and we kill more and more to try and mitigate what nature takes is just crazy.

 

[BigAl]

This deer and/or CWD jumped a lot of real estate to get to Henry Co. I'm guessing 70 miles or more from the nearest positive from last season. Probably a good guess that is in all points in between.

 

[middleTNbowhunter]

This deer and/or CWD jumped a lot of real estate to get to Henry Co. I'm guessing 70 miles or more from the nearest positive from last season. Probably a good guess that is in all points in between.

More likely is that a hunter transported CWD into the area from elsewhere, whether by bringing home a carcass and dumping it or using tainted scents/urine products.

 

[Blockhouse]

I hunt in the center of the outbreak. When I say center - right in the middle of the concentration. When this started I had a buck test negative. Since then buck quality has improved year over year. Cameras this year reveal the same. I'm confused a bit by the panic while enjoy and extended season and limit. We harvest 4-6 bucks a year and quality has improved during this. Very confusing science.

 

[RLH]

Last year, I think it was early MZ season, a couple fellows from Paris on their way to work in Huntingdon, drove up on a big12 pt.. It was walking in circles on the side of the highway and acting very strange and erratic. They watched it for a few minutes and the deer was not scared of them and did not leave the area. It was just acting very, very odd.

This happened at my neighbor's drive. The guys came back after work looking for the deer. They shared the video of the encounter with my neighbor. He showed me and It made me sick and very depressed. My first thoughts were that he was sick with cwd and that this probably explains the low number of deer around that area. I'm very close to the the county line south side of Henry.

I figured that I would hear of other stories of sick deer in Henry but did not. After about four weeks of hunting hard and not seeing deer, I went to my parents farm on the north side near the Kentucky state line and killed a nice 8 pt. the first evening. They were loaded with deer.

 

[BSK]

Last year, I think it was early MZ season, a couple fellows from Paris on their way to work in Huntingdon, drove up on a big12 pt.. It was walking in circles on the side of the highway and acting very strange and erratic. They watched it for a few minutes and the deer was not scared of them and did not leave the area. It was just acting very, very odd.

This happened at my neighbor's drive. The guys came back after work looking for the deer. They shared the video of the encounter with my neighbor. He showed me and It made me sick and very depressed. My first thoughts were that he was sick with cwd and that this probably explains the low number of deer around that area. I'm very close to the the county line south side of Henry.

I figured that I would hear of other stories of sick deer in Henry but did not. After about four weeks of hunting hard and not seeing deer, I went to my parents farm on the north side near the Kentucky state line and killed a nice 8 pt. the first evening. They were loaded with deer.

I seriously, SERIOUSLY question the idea that a significant number of deer in Henry County have already died of CWD, hence the lower local numbers. This is just one deer testing positive. As Blockhouse pointed out, even in the center of the CWD hotzone, not that many deer have CWD, and people don't see sick deer everywhere.

By your description, that big 12 point was very likely suffering from a brain abscess. This is a very common cause of death among bucks during the rut. With all the rubbing and sparring they do, they crack the skull plate right at the base of the antler pedicle, allowing bacteria to get into the brain case, causing a fatal abscess to form. I've seen bucks dying of this process, and they act exactly as you described, walking in circles, looking disoriented, and having no fear of Man.

 

[BigAl]

I'm close to the CWD hotzone. I have many deer that come in and out of my backyard so I get to observe them often. A few thousand acres of farmland around me so these aren't pet deer. So far I've seen only one deer that I suspect had CWD, possibly two at the most. Of course, you can't see it, I mean deer that appeared to be sick and acting strange. And as BSK pointed out, it could be a number of things.

 

[RLH]

Yeah, good point. Heck, that buck may have been hit by a car. Although, we have noticed the reduction of deer in this area for the last few years, it is too early to be the results from cwd without it being detected. We have a lot of coyotes and poachers but I have been thinking it was from EHD.

 

[TheLBLman]

. . . . . we have noticed the reduction of deer in this area for the last few years . . . . .

Certain areas are seasonally (sometimes annually and for more than a year) subject to a "shifting" in local deer herds due to a multitude of reasons.

Reasons often include seasonally changing food sources, sometimes annually changing food sources.

Acorn crops can be feast or famine from one year to the next;
and local farmers can totally change what they plant from one year to the next.

Just imagine how it might effect your local deer density if a lot of farmers started planting cotton instead of soybeans in an area you hunt.

But food sources are just one piece of this often big puzzle.

Has there been a decrease in the area's cover habitat?
Such as more woods becoming either more mature, or recently clear-cut?

Just saying I don't believe CWD has even been a piece of this puzzle there.

But, the biggest piece COULD be the ongoing higher doe harvests of being in Unit L.

 

[muddyboots]

I personally fear it's the end of my deer hunting. When it hits my county twra will do something that I don't agree with and it will just become too much of a hassle to go hunt an area where they kill every deer they see in the summer. I've done that before. It's not very much fun. Decimating the herd is definately not the way to go. I've seen a deer in pretty sure had it 10 years ago so it's been around a lot longer than we've known. All just my opinion. Just let nature take care of itself and go hunt and enjoy the outdoors.

 

[Boll Weevil]

CWD seems to have impacted hunter behavior in my area and may be reflected in the now exploding deer numbers. Harvest totals in the last 2 years dipped significantly, and this year deer numbers (via camera data) are absolutely through the roof.

What I'm suggesting is lengthening season, beginning rifle earlier, and making bag limits more liberal did not result in a decimated herd in the first of the CWD counties. It's been quite the opposite because perhaps, hunters sought other non-CWD counties to hunt and/or killed fewer deer because of the disease. Unfortunately, we appear to be in a population explosion.

 

[WTM]

My concern remains more about how CWD is reponded to (i.e. regs)
than the CWD itself.

Areas where CWD presented decades ago continue to have good deer hunting today,
WITHOUT state game agencies decimating the deer populations in those areas?

Then there are areas where state game agencies DID DESTROY the deer populations in CWD areas, yet to what extent did those areas fare much differently?

Do we somewhat destroy the heritage of deer hunting with fear-mongering of CWD?

Yes, CWD is bad news.
Just hoping TWRA's "treatment" doesn't end up being worse than the disease.

I know several hunters who just cancelled their deer hunting plans on some October quota hunts (in Henry County) because they're afraid of CWD, along with the edicts of transporting the deer.

One quota hunt in particular presents a unqiue issue, in that currently all options for dealing with a hunter-killed deer would now be illegal. It is for the Big Sandy Unit of the TN National Wildllife Refuge. This unit is in Henry County, but one cannot drive to it without driving thru Benton County. There are no deer processors on the refuge, and as soon as one drives off it, he is in Benton County.

the peninsula would pretty much become a boat access hunt with hunters putting their boats in on the henry county side with the exception of that part that lies on the benton county side.

 

[BSK]

CWD seems to have impacted hunter behavior in my area and may be reflected in the now exploding deer numbers. Harvest totals in the last 2 years dipped significantly, and this year deer numbers (via camera data) are absolutely through the roof.

What I'm suggesting is lengthening season, beginning rifle earlier, and making bag limits more liberal did not result in a decimated herd in the first of the CWD counties. It's been quite the opposite because perhaps, hunters sought other non-CWD counties to hunt and/or killed fewer deer because of the disease. Unfortunately, we appear to be in a population explosion.

That doesn't surprise me at all. Instead of hunters lowering the deer density, the fear of CWD is driving hunters away, allowing a deer population explosion.

 

[BSK]

Once CWD gets to my area, and it will eventually, will it change anything I do management or hunting-wise? Nope. Stopped using slat licks years ago. Don't have any more tiny food plots. Never used feeders. Don't have a high deer density. Won't change a thing. I'll still hunt the same way, use harvests to keep density below maximum, and eat the deer I kill.