Fall Buck Dispersal in Centre County
Just like the thousands of orange-clad hunters that are taking to the woods today in search of a deer, biologist Wendy Vreeland will also be hunting bucks in Centre County. The only difference is that Vreeland has been “hunting” the same bucks almost every day since mid-January.
Vreeland is the Centre County Field Supervisor for the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s ambitious yearling buck study. The deer that she has been hunting are all wearing one of three different radio transmitters: a brown neck collar, a smaller ear-mounted transmitter (most bucks have these), or a larger satellite-tracked collar. Vreeland “hunts” on foot, by vehicle and even from an airplane. Her only “weapon” is a radio receiver.
The study goal was to capture and monitor one hundred yearling bucks in each of the study counties, Centre and Armstrong, each year for three years. Deer were captured with large nets, walk-in traps, by helicopter, and with dart guns. By the end of May, a total of 384 deer had been captured in both counties, 141 bucks had been radio-collared, and 82 were being tracked. Winter weather and an abundant acorn crop made capturing deer in Centre County a difficult proposition. This year’s county goal of 100 radio-collared bucks was not met.
Vreeland said, “Several male fawns that were radio-collared in the spring of 2001 as a part of the PGC Fawn Mortality Study are helping out the buck study.” She is still tracking four of those one-and-one-half-year-old bucks whose transmitters have stayed on the deer and lasted longer than expected.
The Game Commission hopes to learn the survival rate of bucks and also what causes their deaths. Radio transmitters are allowing the biologists in the field to track the movements and dispersal of the bucks. They also hope to monitor changes in age structure and average rack sizes, changes that might be caused by the new antler restrictions. Their last objective is to evaluate hunter compliance and satisfaction with the new antler restrictions.
Vreeland, with whom I spoke last week, brought me up-to-date on the fall dispersal of bucks in neighboring Centre County. Vreeland said that in Centre County, 14 of the 36 being monitored had moved by the end of May, and three more were located in new environments during June. The average distance for relocation was about four miles. Only nine of these are still on Vreeland’s radar screen.
According to Vreeland, 13 more yearling bucks have moved to new areas in and around the county this fall. Four of the bucks dispersed in mid-October, while the other nine didn’t move until mid-November. She added, “Veterans Day was a real eye-opener for me – bucks started moving everywhere.” Preliminary results show an average move of about three miles – slightly less than in the spring. A few other study bucks are still in the same areas as they were when they were originally captured last winter.
Vreeland said that buck #53, captured last winter on State Game Lands #176, has stayed in the same area where he was caught. The tagged buck appears to be sharing sections of the same food plot with two other bucks – one reported to be a nice eight-point. According to Vreeland, each of the bucks has scrapes and rub lines near the plot.
Nine of the bucks that were captured and radio-collared in the area of Penns Cave last winter are still being monitored. Three of them moved in the spring, three more in the fall and three of the original nine are still, as of last week, close to where they were caught.
Vreeland thought it was interesting to note that Buck #135 recently moved southwest toward Centre Hall and ended up in the same area where two of the spring-dispersing Penns Cave bucks had moved earlier in the year.
Just as in the spring, there is no apparent pattern to the bucks’ movements. One buck that was captured near the airport in the Moshannon State Forest recently moved south off of the Allegheny Plateau and is now living on private ground.
According to PSU graduate student Eric Long, who is also working on the study, “Buck #3 in Centre County has made some of the most interesting movements to date. In May, he moved his primary range south of Brush Mountain away from the agricultural fields where we had captured him. Then earlier this fall, he returned to the area where we had captured him.”
Vreeland added that #3 is now living on the north side of Nittany Mountain, right next to buck number #15 that had moved there in the spring.
New information about Pennsylvania’s deer herd is still being learned from fawns that were tagged in the springs of 2000 and 2001. An archery hunter recently harvested a two-and-a-half-year-old eight-point that was wearing fawn ear tag #129. The buck was shot just across the Clinton County line, not far from where it was tagged in Centre County as a fawn.
Hunters are reminded that collared and tagged deer are legal as long as their antlers meet the minimum required. Please contact the PGC at the toll-free number that included on the silver ear tags to report your kill or if you see a tag on a road-killed deer. Fawns tagged in 2000 and 2001 are still wearing their brown ear tags and should be reported, also. Hunters are an important part of this scientific research. They need to do their part reporting tagged deer when they are harvested.
ON THE WEB
Many of the details as well as all of the background information on the study rationale, methods, buck dispersal, deer management implications and a research journal are available on the commission’s website:www.pgc.state.pa.us – Click on “Wildlife” then “Deer” and then “Antlered Deer Study.”
Mark Nale can be reached at MarkAngler@aol.com
