While it has been noted that the long winter has been hard on wildlife in Utah, reports have not been as severe as the brutal winter faced by wildlife in Wyoming. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department shared on Friday that since mid-February, between 250 and 300 pronghorn carcasses had been removed from the wilderness and lab results revealed that the ultimate cause of death for most of these animals was pneumonia. Those deaths were found as far south as Rock Springs. As Game and Fish personnel were out performing the field studies on the pronghorn carcasses it was reported that there is a growing number of animals now dying from malnutrition due to the long, hard winter. Mule deer have not been affected by pneumonia but have still also suffered significant winter losses. Looking just at the GPS-collard mule deer, 35 percent of does and 90 percent of juvenile deer have died to date. Adult deer mortality is about 20 percent during a more typical winter. “Wildlife managers won’t be able to get an accurate assessment of the losses to pronghorn and mule deer in western Wyoming until a majority of the snow melts. But it is clear there are going to be significant losses and hunters can expect much more conservative hunting seasons for both species next fall.”
