. The Canadian field-naturalist. 1992 OZOGA, DOEPKER. AND EARLE: HUNTER-HARVEST OF WHITE-TAILED DEER 359. Figure 1. Hunter recovery locations of captive-raised and wild male White-tailed Deer released in the Petrel Grade deer- yard. Captive deer were raised in the research pens or the 252-ha enclosure located at the Cusino Wildlife Research Station, then released in the Petrel Grade deeryard. Insert shows location of study area in Upper Michigan. implicated in excessive first year post-release deaths of captive-raised male White-tailed Deer released in Texas (McCall et al. 1988) and among tran
. The Canadian field-naturalist. 1992 OZOGA, DOEPKER. AND EARLE: HUNTER-HARVEST OF WHITE-TAILED DEER 359. Figure 1. Hunter recovery locations of captive-raised and wild male White-tailed Deer released in the Petrel Grade deer- yard. Captive deer were raised in the research pens or the 252-ha enclosure located at the Cusino Wildlife Research Station, then released in the Petrel Grade deeryard. Insert shows location of study area in Upper Michigan. implicated in excessive first year post-release deaths of captive-raised male White-tailed Deer released in Texas (McCall et al. 1988) and among translocated wild deer in other studies (Jones and Witham 1990). Most deaths reportedly occurred within the first four months. Clearly, in our study, premature death of tagged deer (captive-raised or wild), for whatever reason, would reduce their numbers available to hunters in autumn. Capture-related stress sustained in handling con- tributed to about 12% mortality among wild deer translocated in Illinois (Jones and Witham 1990). While we have no such data for deer we released in the wild, re-examination of data (1982-1991) for male deer returned to the enclosure revealed that 2 of 41 = adult males and 7 of 57 = male fawns died 1-21 days post-handling due to capture myopathy. Therefore, it seems reasonable to assume that the deer we released in the wild experienced even greater capture-related mortality, because of the added higher predator risk involved (Ozoga and Harger 1966). Because of the generally severe winter climatic conditions in this northern region, some deer (mostly fawns and aged females, Ozoga 1972) die from mal- nutrition and predation each winter, and losses sometimes exceed 50 deer/km- (Verme and Ozoga 1971). Captive-raised fawns we released in autumn were probably especially ill-prepared, physiological- ly and behaviorally, to endure the severe winter cli- matic conditions characteristic of this region. Obviously, they had not attained optimal growth
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