Circle of life

[Daver]

My son recently found a dead buck while shed hunting that we were pretty sure was laying out there somewhere, as he has been a regular for a couple of years at least and then just went AWOL sometime in August I believe, maybe Sept. We were pretty sure that he was one of our EHD casualties and that is what it looked like when he turned up.





I took these two pics when he showed up in front of me one day in Nov. 2022. After looking at him in person and then sending these pics via text to my son, I decided to go ahead and shoot him, which I did. While the shot was at close range, which led me to thinking that I could "sneak one in there", as he was mostly facing me...my shot hit him and passed through to where I could see the broadhead on the other side of his shoulder...it was not a fatal hit though and I regret trying that shot and will not do that again, etc. He "disappeared" for, I don't remember exactly, about 3-5 weeks, but then by the end of December, 2022, he was showing up on cams again. Whew!





We got some pics of him through the summer of 2023, when he then went missing again...only now we are in an EHD outbreak zone...so I didn't expect him to show back on cams. And the pic below shows why...we think he met his demise in late August or early Sept. He appeared to die when he was partly in velvet and partly in hard horn. We have found 16, I think, dead ones now, with most looking like EHD casualties. FWIW, there may be a few more out there, but...that number is less than I thought we would find. I am curious...if a deer dies in a pond...do they bloat and then float and then sink out of sight in a pond? We are scratching our heads a little bit because there are deer that we, including close neighbors, consider "missing" that we have yet to find.

 

[sure shot]

They definitely bloat and float. I would assume at some point, they "pop" and sink...

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[Daver]

They definitely bloat and float. I would assume at some point, they "pop" and sink...

Alrighty then...I am going to say that I think that this must have happened to us...because although we have found quite a few "bone piles", we still think we should have found several more. FWIW, we have three ponds deep enough to "hide" a carcass and found none in any of those ponds and only found one up on the bank near the biggest pond. That just didn't seem to mesh with how many we think we lost...and we have only found this one buck, although we know of several other specific bucks that went missing.

 

[8bitnes]

Alrighty then...I am going to say that I think that this must have happened to us...because although we have found quite a few "bone piles", we still think we should have found several more. FWIW, we have three ponds deep enough to "hide" a carcass and found none in any of those ponds and only found one up on the bank near the biggest pond. That just didn't seem to mesh with how many we think we lost...and we have only found this one buck, although we know of several other specific bucks that went missing.

Coyotes will run off with the heads, lots of meat in the neck area. More than once I have found heads several hundred yards away from the rest

 

[Daver]

Coyotes will run off with the heads, lots of meat in the neck area. More than once I have found heads several hundred yards away from the rest

I have seen "scattered skeletons" too many times, presumably from coyotes. But with exception of the buck highlighted above, all other "heads" have been present and accounted for and were clearly does. It just seems weird that this is the only buck dead from EHD that we have found so far...as we know from trail cams that multiple other ones are absent...but so far their skeletons are MIA. FWIW, it just seems weird.

 

[Thinkin Rut]

Frustrating situation for sure. I wonder what the approximate recovery time on a one time EHD episode is? 3-4 years?

 

[Daver]

Frustrating situation for sure. I wonder what the approximate recovery time on a one time EHD episode is? 3-4 years?

I was kind of thinking, "Crap, well it will 3 to 4 years before things are cooking again...", like you indicated. But...we have had some "move ins"...or possibly, "move backs".

So we actually have some good prospects on the farm now for next year. Yay!! Now then, what comes and goes over the next year...who knows for sure.

We ended up not shooting any does this year and I don't foresee many being targeted this year, but we do have "some" deer there now...so we will just have to see.

 

[Thinkin Rut]

I was thinking possibly, at least a few that disappeared, may return. That would be a bonus for sure! That disease is about as unpredictable as the Whitetail itself. Good luck to you.

 

[Pops]

I was kind of thinking, "Crap, well it will 3 to 4 years before things are cooking again...", like you indicated. But...we have had some "move ins"...or possibly, "move backs".

So we actually have some good prospects on the farm now for next year. Yay!! Now then, what comes and goes over the next year...who knows for sure.

We ended up not shooting any does this year and I don't foresee many being targeted this year, but we do have "some" deer there now...so we will just have to see.

Not sure we’re seeing many returning or new replacements that are mature. Neighbor has found 5, I believe this week. They’ve spent a lot of time on their farm with some projects. Several had already been found. Discouraging. I don’t think we’re located terribly far from Daver.

 

[Muddyrem]

Frustrating situation for sure. I wonder what the approximate recovery time on a one time EHD episode is? 3-4 years?

We still haven’t come close to recovering in southern Warren, northern Clarke from the 2019 outbreak. Farms holding 3-4 mature deer are lucky to have one. Seems like areas recover when everyone is on the same page. But when half your deer die and people own land to hunt deer, seems they don’t like waiting years for that age class of deer to get back on the farms. So every 3-4 year old gets shot. Our area never reduced doe tags to represent the deer killed that year. So yet again, neighbors see the number of doe tags and think deer numbers need to be reduced and then the mature, hardy, does that made it start getting killed. The cycle never is able to be broken so here we sit; 4 years later and nothing seems to be getting better regarding what was once here for numbers/year class.

 

[Daver]

We still haven’t come close to recovering in southern Warren, northern Clarke from the 2019 outbreak. Farms holding 3-4 mature deer are lucky to have one. Seems like areas recover when everyone is on the same page. But when half your deer die and people own land to hunt deer, seems they don’t like waiting years for that age class of deer to get back on the farms. So every 3-4 year old gets shot. Our area never reduced doe tags to represent the deer killed that year. So yet again, neighbors see the number of doe tags and think deer numbers need to be reduced and then the mature, hardy, does that made it start getting killed. The cycle never is able to be broken so here we sit; 4 years later and nothing seems to be getting better regarding what was once here for numbers/year class.

The more I hear about so many other places...the more that I am grateful for our neighbors. It's huge.

 

[Thinkin Rut]

Muddyrem...I've always wondered if, since it overwinters in cattle, if you could have back to back or even three years in a row but maybe stepping down in severity as time goes on? Have you ever found one or two per year after your initial outbreak?

 

[Muddyrem]

Muddyrem...I've always wondered if, since it overwinters in cattle, if you could have back to back or even three years in a row but maybe stepping down in severity as time goes on? Have you ever found one or two per year after your initial outbreak?

Yep,

On the farms I hunt, we have it every single year. Some years worse than others. IMO, if the cows are there then the disease is there. I feel like after you get hit hard, the deer than make it through that first wave may have antibodies that allow them to not become infected and or overcome the illness. One would assume that offspring of those would then have the same antibodies? But it’s hard to tell what’s breeding what. All I know is the bucks that made it through seem to continue on the following year or even years to come. Since 19’ I haven’t had any mature deer (4.5+) that have succumb to EHD but for sure yearlings / 1-2year olds on the farms I’m hunting.

 

[Matthewfox_45]

We still haven’t come close to recovering in southern Warren, northern Clarke from the 2019 outbreak. Farms holding 3-4 mature deer are lucky to have one. Seems like areas recover when everyone is on the same page. But when half your deer die and people own land to hunt deer, seems they don’t like waiting years for that age class of deer to get back on the farms. So every 3-4 year old gets shot. Our area never reduced doe tags to represent the deer killed that year. So yet again, neighbors see the number of doe tags and think deer numbers need to be reduced and then the mature, hardy, does that made it start getting killed. The cycle never is able to be broken so here we sit; 4 years later and nothing seems to be getting better regarding what was once here for numbers/year class.

I hunt in southern warren just north of the Lucas line. We were hit hard in 19, killed a stud buck in 22, but still aren’t seeing numbers of deer like we should. Decided late season to not shoot any does as deer numbers still seem down, that will probably be the strategy for this year as well.

 

[crietveld]

I’m in the same boat as muddyrem, finding a few ehd deer every year for at least the last ten years. We got hammered in 2019 as well, lost some great genetic young bucks and a pile of does.

2020 was still a good year with several bucks 160 up to 190 killed in my area. Since then it has been crap, not much over 130 seen or on camera.

What is baffling to me is the lack of yearling bucks in my area this year. Most of the bucks I had on camera after season were 2.5 or older, and only one 10 point out of 15 different bucks.


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[Muddyrem]

I hunt in southern warren just north of the Lucas line. We were hit hard in 19, killed a stud buck in 22, but still aren’t seeing numbers of deer like we should. Decided late season to not shoot any does as deer numbers still seem down, that will probably be the strategy for this year as well.

Yep, myself as well as most of the buddies I talk hunting with are no longer shooting mature does. If a guy wants some meat, it’s a yearling or doe without a fawn (when able)

Our deer numbers won’t get back to what they once were without guys doing it themselves on their terms. Seems the Iowa DNR won’t reduce doe tags and unfortunately hunters can’t seem to see big picture. Each fall I’ll buy a few extra tags from counties I hunt and purposely not fill them. Somethings gotta change or our kids won’t have much to choose from when they become old enough to hunt.