Every year, the DWR captures and collars big game animals to learn more about migration patterns and survival rates. This winter, a record 1,779 big game animals were captured across the state, including in northeastern Utah. The captures typically take place between November and March, when the animals have migrated to lower elevations and are easier to locate. “When we do capture work, we make a concerted effort to minimize chase times and to keep all capture-related stress to a minimum,” shares DWR Big Game Projects Coordinator Kent Hersey. “It’s a short one-time event for those animals and doesn’t have the same impacts as repeated disturbances that cause them to use up important fat reserves. The information our biologists get from capturing a relatively small sample of deer provides very valuable data that is used to manage the entire deer population.” During the 2023-24 winter, the following animals were captured, assessed and released: 209 Bighorn sheep, 27 Bison, 1,153 Deer, 305 Elk, 18 Moose, and 67 Pronghorn. During this year’s captures, deer across the state were in good nutritional condition. Of the 19 hunting units where deer were captured in December, eight of the units had deer with record high body fat levels.
