Aerial captures in Sheridan Region took place in mid-December

According to a Wyoming Game and Fish news release, Dec. 13, saw the capture of 39 mule deer does via helicopter along the eastern Bighorns by a contracted capture crew and fitted with GPS collars as part of the Northern Bighorns Mule Deer Movement Study. There are now 119 collared deer in this study. The collars will collect locations for each deer at two-hour intervals for the next three years.

As part of the ongoing Upper Powder River Mule Deer Study, the capture crew recaptured 48 deer on Dec. 14 and 15 between Kaycee and Buffalo. The deer were transported to a staging area where wildlife managers took body measurements, collected blood and fecal samples, downloaded current data from the collars and used an ultrasound to assess body fat. Additionally, 18 collars retrieved from mortalities that occurred earlier in the study were redeployed on new deer. A final capture will take place in December 2021 and the collars are programmed to automatically release from each animal in January 2022.

On Dec. 16, GPS collars were fitted on 17 mule deer does captured near Highway 16 between Buffalo and Ucross as part of the Powder River/Pumpkin Buttes Deer Movement Study initiated in Nov. 2019. These collars were recovered from deer that died earlier in the study and redeployed.