• Numbers are expected to bounce back.

The winter of 2022-23 was one for the record books with snowfall setting new standards in many places of western Wyoming. It was also a very difficult year for wildlife and mule deer and pronghorn antelope struggled to survive. A recent aerial count of mule deer in the region confirmed just how much of a struggle it was with Wyoming Game and Fish officials noting that the herd which was once estimated at 30,000 is now down to about 11,000 animals.

“It’s obviously very ugly to look at,” said WGF Director Brian Nesvik in a recent interview during the Weekday Wake-up.  “We haven’t seen that sharp of a decline since 1991-93. This is the lowest number of total deer we’ve seen since we started doing this in 1982.”

While the numbers were shocking, Nesvik also stated that experts feel the mule deer herd is poised to bounce back and recover as well as could possibly be hoped for.

“All of the conditions are in  place for as quick of a rebound as possible,” he stated. “We know that the does who were expecting were going to struggle. This year the does have the highest amount of fat that we’ve seen. It’s going to take three to five years for things to get back to what they were before but the conditions are in place.”

Nesvik also explained that the herd will benefit from things that have been put into place well before this recent die-off.

“It is important for us to know at what rate things are going to improve,” he continued. “Habitat work and improving ranges were put into place years ago. We will target predator control and coyote removal around the fawning areas. The effect of that can’t be measured really well but we know that it will help. We’re going to look at female harvest so we’ll be watching that as well.”