New concept: Airlifting Deer without tranquing

Capchaman,yes deer have been caught using "gotcha guns" in NZ for nearly four decades.So it seems reasonable they should know a thing or two.Here is a quote from our Kiwi mates, "When the animal dies after being caught in the net it can still be sold as feral venison.You use the net because you don't have to wait for the drugs to take effect,if you miss with the net you shoot the deer with a rifle,sling it,reload the net & on to the next".Deer which were valuable (hinds) were given Fentaz(10mg fentanil\80mg azaperone) as Rompun (xylazine) didn't prevent PCM. This was all on red deer not whitetail,& it certainly was not research.I would love to see some published data on the survival rates.

Great way to catch deer in Texas. Terrain plays a big part in the catching of deer I can see that for sure. Unless Wisconsin has changed from all those big oak trees, maples and brush I think the helicopter boys will have a hard time catching deer. Even in a corn field it looks like it will be a hard job. I would love to see this program in action in Wisconsin as it will probably be a joke. I hope no one gets hurt.

Yes it certainly is more difficult to catch deer in oak covered terrain!! but it can be done provided there are open areas to move the deer to, if it is just wall to wall oak, with very little opens areas, it will get very expensive!!! with not many deer being caught.



Capture Myopathy on deer being caught by means of net gun capture depends on many factors certain species of deer are more susceptible to CM than other, how hard and how long the deer are pushed by the helicopter before being netted play a big part in CM. Once the deer is netted, the quicker one can get to the animal blind fold it and administer either Azaperone, Haloperidol, or Zuclopenthixol acetate and restrain it the better the chances are that you can prevent CM.



As mention net gun capture has come along way since the days of the original "Gotcha Gun" and the and the lack of knowledge that the operators had about CM. The tranquilizers available today are also a lot more effective than 30 - 40 years ago.

Thanks, Capchaman.If you use "LANs" & don't exert the deer this method is possible. Without "LANs", it is an act of cruelty. Sharkey.

I must admit that the videos of capturing wild animals are quite impressive but on the same hand I have to admit that I do not think it's cost-effective in what research the DNR are claiming to gather. For one, the does they capture will most likely abort and they'll wonder why there's so many late fawns born. And if they fly anywhere in the southern half of Wisconsin they have a lot of trees/cover to avoid let alone the bluffs in our area. Hope the helicopter pilots are as skilled as the video pilots are.



With the supplements the biologists give the animals upon capturing, I don't see how they can say they'll have a good research done on what the biggest cause of death when they may be preventing what they're "dying off from" by giving them things such as Vit E/selenium...just a thought.



I also cannot imagine those big wide collars being very comfortable when their coats change, hope they don't cut their feet and/or above their hooves trying to itch under them or get caught in branches by using the limbs to scratch. Worse yet, hope the other deer don't take too strange to the collars when they see them like when our deer have something hanging from their antlers.

The whole idea is a crock. I am just throwing it out there and have no evidence or insight to any particular information. But could this maybe, just maybe, be a really sneaky idea of funneling money towards a company who either owns the helicopters, the pilots, or the service being used?

If I owned a company and wanted to get some over inflated contract to make some big dollars and I could convince some person in a position of power to use my service what could I make? Hmmm?

The contract was given to a Salt Lake City based company named Red Pine Helicopters. It was for $94,000. They plan to catch 60 - 90 adult deer. Its part of a greater plan called [Investing in Wisconsin Whitetails] a $2 million plan for researching deer mortality and size of the deer herd. Doing the math, its about 1,000 to $1600 per deer, not counting the DNR's other costs. If they needed deer would'nt it be better to buy deer? How many deer farmers would sell does for $1500 and be happy? Also they would be getting good genetics to improve the wild deer herd.

G O Whitetails said:

The contract was given to a Salt Lake City based company named Red Pine Helicopters. It was for $94,000. They plan to catch 60 - 90 adult deer. Its part of a greater plan called [Investing in Wisconsin Whitetails] a $2 million plan for researching deer mortality and size of the deer herd. Doing the math, its about 1,000 to $1600 per deer, not counting the DNR's other costs. If they needed deer would'nt it be better to buy deer? How many deer farmers would sell does for $1500 and be happy? Also they would be getting good genetics to improve the wild deer herd.

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DNR buying deer? never work makes to much ( CENTS ) LOL

They need to keep coming up with new projects to gather funds since their CWD scare is dwindling...and so are the funds. Really, they need to be able to pay for the additional land they just acquired.



Plus, the radio just said they purchased a deer farm in northern WI, any truth to that?

Catching deer with net guns out of helicopters is not new. Thousands of deer are caught each year out of helicopters with minimal death loss. The only real danger of netting deer is the weight that is attached to each corner of the net hitting the deer in the head. We catch 120 wild deer each year and put them in DMP pens. DMP pens are permitted by the state of Texas to allow ranchers to catch 20 does and a quality buck prior to the rut hold them in a pen (minimum 5 acres) and then release them by August 31.This allows a trophy buck to breed a quantity of doe instead of just 1-3. This is a great way to increase quality genetics on a piece of property. Some doe have been caught 3-4 times. We eartag every doe every time that we catch her so we know how many times she has been caught. Out of 500+ deer that have been caught we have only lost 3. We can catch over 100 head a day and there would be no way we could do that with darting.

Ross said:

Catching deer with net guns out of helicopters is not new. Thousands of deer are caught each year out of helicopters with minimal death loss. The only real danger of netting deer is the weight that is attached to each corner of the net hitting the deer in the head. We catch 120 wild deer each year and put them in DMP pens. DMP pens are permitted by the state of Texas to allow ranchers to catch 20 does and a quality buck prior to the rut hold them in a pen (minimum 5 acres) and then release them by August 31.This allows a trophy buck to breed a quantity of doe instead of just 1-3. This is a great way to increase quality genetics on a piece of property. Some doe have been caught 3-4 times. We eartag every doe every time that we catch her so we know how many times she has been caught. Out of 500+ deer that have been caught we have only lost 3. We can catch over 100 head a day and there would be no way we could do that with darting.

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thanks ross/wi DNR hope i never meet you

Forget the crazy capture senario, How is radio tagging deer going to help estimate the states deer population ?

All you will have is an estimation of how long deer live after being stressed to the max. with a helicopter and a radio necklace.

Using a plane and counting yarded up deer in late winter, and surveying hunters makes more sense to me. But of course that would be cheaper and less sensational.

Jamie

Let me get this straight... So you capture wild does, pen them in, put a trophy wild buck in the mix, a little hanky panky later you release the deer. Does B&C recognize a trophy harvested in that region? It just seems as though it is the same smack talk that deer farmer nay sayers claim is unethical about fenced hunting. It is selective breeding without the fence.

DNR has called this off. They claim they had problems with the helicopter.

the recession must be really bad ..the country has only one working helicopter

http://www.wqow.com/global/video/po...&clipFormat=flv&clipId1=5605742&at1=Promotion 12&h1=At Last Off the Ground - 2/25/11&flvUri=&partnerclipid= On "Northland Adventures" this morning, WQOW/18 News, they had a story about the capture. I hope I did the link right, or you can google Northland Adventures with Dave Carlson. Gary

I watched the rodeo, and it seemed to go quite well.



It still doesn't make sense to me. The wildlife official said after tagging adult deer they will be able to tell how long they live. If they can't tell how old a dead deer is, how can they know how old the live deer is when they tag it?

They can get a pretty good relative age from tooth eruption & an absolute from the cementium annuli meathod from dead deer,hope theres not too many.

It dosn't take much effort to throw a cover over a clover trap, before getting in with a deer.It dramatically reduces the stress on both parties.I can't believe they allowed a basic mistake like that on air.

Hopefully the reasearch is more robust.

Cheers Sharkey