Southern Interior Mule Deer Project Update : Doe O18013 was captured and collared on December 7, 2018, and died March 6, 2020. At capture, she weighed 87.1 kg and was estimated to be approximately five years old.
She was the second-longest migrator we have captured throughout the project. Watch the video of her return from summer range to winter range in 2019, up to March 6, 2020. She was found dead with no obvious cause of mortality. A field necropsy revealed lungs which appeared to be compromised.
During the necropsy, it was found the doe’s right front proximal phalanx was previously broken but had fused back together. Samples of the lungs were sent to the animal health center in Abbotsford, and the ultimate cause of death was determined to be pneumonia. Stay tuned for another Southern Interior Mule Deer Project Update!
Watch the migration video below:
About the Southern Interior Mule Deer Project:
To learn how to restore mule deer populations in BC by studying how landscape change and the predator prey community are affecting our current populations.
The BCWF has already confirmed $115,000 of this project’s funding to come from government sources, but as always we will be heavily relying on volunteer support and non government funding to make this project a reality.
The goal of the project is to answer the key question of how landscape change affects mule deer and the predator‐prey community. Jesse Zeman, Director of Fish and Wildlife Restoration for the BC Wildlife Federation in collaboration with Sophie Gilbert of the University of Idaho and Adam Ford of The University of British Columbia, Okanagan, created the following presentation to provide you with the history and background behind the population decline of the Mule deer in the Southern Interior of British Columbia.
For more information about the Southern Interior Mule Deer Project click here!