State Headquarters
P.O.Box 48
Neshkoro, WI 54960
Earlier this week (3 Jan 2012) in Madison, we conducted a new crew orientation for our 2012 field crew. We appreciate the time that Jack Sullivan and Karl Martin were able to spend with the crew and have no doubt our crew benefited from the information they were provided. We appreciate the help of Mike Riggle to coordinate additional field training for our new crew members, particularly related to collecting blood samples.
Also, a BIG thank you to Mike Riggle for building modified trigger mechanisms and break-away bars for our 100 netted cage traps. This was no small task and we are very grateful to have Mike's continued support on the project.....thank you Mike!!! The research team has identified a strong need for night vision equipment, and we appreciate the help that Jean Romback-Bartels and Karl Brooks have been in helping us meet this need! Other equipment needs include ground blinds and binoculars. If anyone knows of folks who possess (and would be willing to loan us) this equipment, we would appreciate it.
In other news, our list of civilian volunteers has now expanded to more than 500 people. We are fortunate to have such strong interest in the project and are busy scheduling trapping events with many new citizens throughout the winter trapping season. The field crews are busy deploying ground traps (box and netted cage traps) in both study areas. However, the unusually warm weather is making it difficult to effectively draw deer to our bait site locations. We will continue to bait and hope for more favorable weather conditions in the future, at which time we will promptly deploy additional ground traps at active bait site locations. Starting on 9 January, intensive trapping (particularly for adult bucks) will begin, including the ability to immobilize ALL adult animals if needed. To increase the likelihood of capturing 40 fawns in the northern forest this year, we will be ultrasounding and VIT tagging 60 adult females this year in the northern forest study site. In contrast, we will scale back our VIT tagging efforts to 20 adult females in the eastcentral study area this year. Ultrasoundind and VIT tagging adult females will start on 9 January in the northern forest and shortly thereafter in the eastern farmland. The capture of adult bucks will continue to be a priority throughout the 2012 trapping season. Weekly monitoring of survival and movement status of existing collared deer continues to be a priority in both study areas.