Wisconsin’s deer population has long been faced with hunters on the ground, but starting last week, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources trackers have taken to the sky.
Hunters will be catching deer for population research purposes by shooting nets from helicopters. This project is one of a series of efforts designed to learn about deer population estimating techniques over the next few years, Robert Manwell, Wisconsin DNR spokesperson, said.
The research effort will take place in northern Wisconsin, beginning in Shawano County Jan. 21 and continuing in Rusk County Jan. 28.
“The full package of research will cost about $2 million, spent over three to five years,” Manwell said.
The project began to take form after the Wisconsin Deer Hunters Association made a committee to address deer population numbers, spokesperson Mark Toso said.
“The committee started because hunters complained they weren’t seeing a lot of deer,” Toso said. “And, they didn’t trust the methods the DNR had been using to track deer population in the past.”
The DNR chose helicopters to track the deer population because it is the quickest way to begin their research.
“We need a number of adult male deer to be captured and collared quickly,” Manwell said. “Any other method is much more labor intensive.”
The helicopter will cost $94,000, but will be more efficient than hiring hunters with tranquilizer darts to track deer, Manwell said.
He added a radio transmitter will be placed around the deers’ necks to communicate their position to researchers. The collar is designed to alert researchers if the deer has died.
The results should provide new information about the buck recovery rate in Wisconsin or the number of bucks killed by hunters.
Shahla Werner, Sierra Club spokesperson, supports the study and its methods as long as it is not harmful to the animals involved.
“These radio transmitters they can use will settle the issue once and for all,” Werner said. “Until the hunters see some sort of indisputable evidence, they will always feel regulations are made arbitrarily and unfairly against them rather than based on numbers.”
