Plenty of time to catch some critters

Danielle Switalski

Hunting season is in full swing and there is still ample amount of time for hunters to don their camouflage and head for the hills.

While Montana sees more hunters than any of the lower 48 states, the woods are stocked with plenty of big game animals to hunt and take home for dinner.  So far in Sanders County, according to Bruce Sterling, the area wildlife biologist, the numbers for big game animals have been comparable to last year, however, the surprising part of the season thus far has been the low numbers of hunters, as they are down about 15% compared to last year. 

Weather conditions have not yet been ideal for hunters, but the snow is starting to increase in the mountains and should only improve hunting conditions, said Sterling and will hopefully bring out more hunters.  Also, white tail and mule deer will begin going into the rut in the next week or so, which will increase the animal activity and might bring more hunters out for the season. 

I am probably the only person who did not know what going into the rut means, because I thought it meant the animals either hang out in ditches or feel lazy and bored with life, like people say “I’m in a rut.”  It actually means the animals’ breeding season, which is much more fitting, although I think my initial thoughts of what “going into the rut” means also works, as those deer must get pretty bored dodging cars and bullets all year long.   

 Although, it is too soon to know for sure, Sterling said there might be a possible trend with low numbers of hunters as the number of hunters is also low at other check stations in the region, including one out of Missoula.

As of Saturday morning, which was day seven of Sterling’s work at the check station in Thompson Falls, the number of harvested white tail deer was 25 males, 15 females and four fawns, which is up a bit from last year’s numbers.  Sterling has seen 17 male elk and five females at the check station, which is down slightly, but not significantly from last year.  There have also been seven male mule deer and three females harvested which is about the same as last year.  Taking a look at these numbers the most surprising part of this year’s hunting season is still the low percentage of actual hunters out in the woods. 

The check stations are a crucial part of the hunting season as they help to get a handle on the numbers of animals being harvested, determine hunting seasons and set permit levels and quotas for the female population and also for permitted species such as goat, sheep and moose.

To keep records consistent with years past, the check station is open for the first eight days of hunting season, and every weekend after that until it ends. 

“What’s nice at these check stations is we actually get an opportunity to get our hands on some dead critters,” said Sterling.

Sterling’s main job at the check station is to gauge the ages of the animals that are brought in to see trends in the harvest.  Sterling explained that they like to see a lot of young animals harvested, as well as some older bucks and bulls, which gives an indication of how healthy the population is.  For example, if the harvest has a lot of young animals in it, then the population might be being harvested too heavily. 

Sterling determines the age of the animals by looking at wear patterns on their teeth.  Although Sterling has a wooden board with different fossilized teeth that correlate with a specific age, having worked as a Biologist for over 20 years, he can make a pretty good judgment by simply looking at the animals’ teeth.  Sterling then removes one tooth from the animal to be sent to a lab for official age testing. 

The other advantage in recording the ages of the animals is to verify data collected in springtime surveys of elk and deer conducted by the biologists.  These surveys are done to determine the recruitment rate of yearlings into the population.  Recruitment rate is the number of fawns or calves that have survived the winter and are almost a year old that can be counted into the population.  The check station thus helps validate the information collected during these surveys.

“The recruitment rate is very important because if you’re not recruiting animals into the population, your population is going to start making a nosedive into the negative category,” said Sterling.

If the population number ends up being down for a year, they adjust the antlerless permits and harvesting of the female sex.  This past year, recruitment rate was down, which led to the adjustments in B tags handed out.  Last year, 800 B tags were given out, but this year only 100 B tags were given out based on the data collected in last year’s and this year’s recruitments and the data collected at last year’s check station.

“It gives us an indication that recruitment is light and population is on the downward slide so we’re going to back off on the number of antlerless because the more antlerless animals we have in the population, hopefully the more fawns you will produce and that population will come back up,” said Sterling.

 In Sanders County, there have also been two wolves that were brought in.  The wolf quota for zone one, which Sanders County is in, is 41.  So far, there have been 24 harvested, and Sterling said he would not be surprised if the quota was met by the end of hunting season. 

“I’m a little surprised that they’ve harvested that many wolves in that wolf zone one; I’m surprised they’re over halfway, they’re pretty hard species to hunt and I thought it would take a little bit longer,” said Sterling. 

There is still an abundance of time to add a little flavor to the Thanksgiving table and have more to choose from than plain old turkey, so grab your rifles, spray yourself with some elk pee and hit the woods. 

Reporter Danielle Switalski can be reached  at reporter@VP-MI.com.