With mule deer numbers declining across the state, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) is trying to understand why. The agency launched a five-year study in 2022, which tracks herds across five regions, allowing WGFD biologists to monitor migration patterns, mortality rates and fawn survival, according to KULR 8 News.  

“We think the causes are pretty varied, habitat loss, changes in predator dynamics, changes in weather patterns, all of those things sort of feed into why we see those different dynamics, and that’s one of the goals of this project is to hone in on those different conditions, and the management levers we can pull to help change these decline, or reverse these declines,” said WGFD’s Embere Hall, who is supervising the mule deer project.

Mule deer rely upon specific forage and habitat conditions, unlike elk and whitetail deer, which are able to adapt better to “changing habitats and diets,” according to Hall. 

“So this project has sort of allowed us to see sort of those differential effects of Winter, which is a very common driver of how many animals survive and how many animals die over the course of a year, so 2022-2023 big winter we saw some corresponding mortality in geographically specific places, and this last winter by a lot of measures has been a lot more benign, and we saw survival bump up as we would expect,” said Hall.

While this project is only in its second year, WGFD has already completed projects to help dwindling mule deer numbers, such as building fences to help mule deer navigate underpasses and removing cheatgrass from native ranges. The agency is also connecting with hunters and landowners to gain insights to improve mule deer populations and has plans to collar more mule deer to continue their research into the decline.