ND Game Department Studies Deer Movement, Survival

A wildlife study is under way to learn more about the movements and mortality of whitetail deer.

The project is a collaboration between the North Dakota Game and Fish Department and South Dakota State University. Workers are trying to catch adult female whitetail deer and fit them and their fawns with radio collars.

The study began last winter when a helicopter crew trapped 40 adult does, mainly in Walsh County in northeast North Dakota. The does were outfitted with transmitters that alerted researchers when they gave birth, allowing the fawns to be tracked down after birth for radio collaring.

SDSU professor and project advisor Jonathan Jenks says the goal is to learn more about deer survival and reproduction in a mostly agricultural region.