WESTERN WYOMING – One of Wyoming’s flagship mule deer herds has lost more than half of its animals to an unusual inverted snowpack that’s still killing scores of animals well into April.

The dire situation has some hunters calling on the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to temporarily suspend hunting in some areas.  

About 30 percent of the does in the Wyoming Range Mule Deer Herd had died by late March, when Gov. Mark Gordon convened a town hall-style meeting in Pinedale about winter’s dire effects on ungulate populations in portions of Wyoming. At the time, biologists explained that survival rates could continue to plummet — and their warnings proved prescient. 

In the two weeks that followed, another 20 percent of the adult female deer in the Wyoming Range succumbed to starvation and other winter stressors, a state biologist told WyoFile on Friday. 

“As of yesterday, doe survival in the Wyoming Range was around 47 percent,” said Embere Hall, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s science, research and analytical support unit supervisor.

Bucks in the herd, last assessed at roughly 28,000 animals, were about equally depleted, with just 49 percent surviving. Fawns are all but gone. Just two of the 100 collared yearling deer from the Wyoming Range Herd were still alive when Hall spoke to WyoFile. 

“In the Wyoming Range, it won’t surprise me that we will lose all of the marked juveniles that we have before the winter is over,” she said. “In fact, that’s likely.”

One of Wyoming’s flagship mule deer herds has lost more than half of its animals to an unusual inverted snowpack that’s still killing scores of animals well into April.

The dire situation has some hunters calling on the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to temporarily suspend hunting in some areas.  

About 30 percent of the does in the Wyoming Range Mule Deer Herd had died by late March, when Gov. Mark Gordon convened a town hall-style meeting in Pinedale about winter’s dire effects on ungulate populations in portions of Wyoming. At the time, biologists explained that survival rates could continue to plummet — and their warnings proved prescient. 

In the two weeks that followed, another 20 percent of the adult female deer in the Wyoming Range succumbed to starvation and other winter stressors, a state biologist told WyoFile on Friday. 

“As of yesterday, doe survival in the Wyoming Range was around 47 percent,” said Embere Hall, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s science, research and analytical support unit supervisor.

Bucks in the herd, last assessed at roughly 28,000 animals, were about equally depleted, with just 49 percent surviving. Fawns are all but gone. Just two of the 100 collared yearling deer from the Wyoming Range Herd were still alive when Hall spoke to WyoFile. 

“In the Wyoming Range, it won’t surprise me that we will lose all of the marked juveniles that we have before the winter is over,” she said. “In fact, that’s likely.”

Where it’s at its worst in the Wyoming Range, 2023-’23 will go down as easily the deadliest winter in the modern era for a mule deer herd that’s been closely studied for more than a dozen years. The two most recent severe winters for the herd, in 2016-’17 and 2018-’19, killed only 30 percent of does, whereas winter 2022-’23 already exceeds 50 percent mortality. 

Once 50,000-plus-deer strong, the Wyoming Range Mule Deer Herd is among the largest mule deer herds in the United States. It’s renowned for producing big-antlered bucks that attract trophy deer hunters from around the state and country. 

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department updated its fall 2023 hunting season proposals for Wyoming Range deer in winter’s wake. In the Wyoming and Salt River ranges and beyond in western Wyoming, mule deer rifle hunters will have a one-week shorter season. State officials are also planning to implement a new antler point restriction, requiring that any mule deer harvested have three points or more on either antler. Last, youth hunts have been altered to exclude does and fawns.

Game and Fish biologist Gary Fralick, who’s in his third decade of working with Wyoming Range mule deer, described these adjustments as “substantial changes.” 

But some hunters and outfitters want to see the state go even farther to protect the health of the herd. 

“What’s it going to hurt, if you shut some areas down for a year or two?” said Rock Springs resident Joey Flaigl, a co-founder of the Muley Fanatic Foundation whose deer hunting grounds are in the eastern Green River basin. “That way you’re totally avoiding someone harvesting any deer whatsoever. Give it a try.” 

Suspend the hunt?

Faigl recalled totally suspended hunting seasons in the 1980s in response to severe winters. The tactic worked, he said, and populations surged as seasons were eased back open. 

Pinedale resident Paul Ulrich, who hunts Wyoming Range deer in the La Barge Creek area, said he and his family would be willing to give up hunting the area while the herd is on the mend. 

“We love to hunt — it’s what we do all fall — and for Wyoming’s wildlife population, if it means us taking a year or two off, it’s the right thing to do,” Ulrich said during the Pinedale town hall meeting. 

Total suspensions of the hunting seasons were not on the table during Game and Fish’s deliberations this winter, Fralick said. Doing so, he said, wouldn’t have many benefits. 

“Hunting bucks won’t have any negative influence on the population’s ability to increase,” he said. 

Faced with a half-sized herd, other mule deer hunters want to see the state take other steps to reduce hunting pressure in the Wyoming Range. 

“This year is going to make 2017 look like a cakewalk,” said Freedom outfitter Ted Jenkins, who guides hunters on both sides of the Greys River.

In Jenkins’ view, now is the time to phase out “general” license deer hunting in the region. Those licenses can be bought over the counter by Wyoming residents, the effect being that there’s no real cap on hunter numbers. 

“I’ve guided up there since 1995, and I’ve increasingly seen — year after year — the hunting pressure get worse and worse and worse,” Jenkins said. “Where’s our line in the sand? When do (numbers) get low enough, to the point where they agree that it’s time to make the change?”

Jenkins did not favor suspending the hunting season. He’s aiming to take out two to four guided mule deer hunters this fall, down from the six to 10 he guides in a typical season. 

“I think I’m going to be pushing it to do that,” Jenkins said. “I think all of us have lost prospective clients for this year and in the next few years, obviously. And I don’t anticipate myself hunting for many mule deer or antelope for the next five to seven years.” 

The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission considered amended hunting season proposals during this week’s meeting.