The Dakotan: This is Outdoor Issues with Neil Roberts and North Dakota Game and Fish outreach biologist Greg Gullickson. Neil Roberts: With the Deer Application in progress. Some good news especially for mule deer numbers are up. Greg, give us some details. Greg Gullickson: Yeah, that's right. The North Dakota game at Fish Department recently completed its annual Spring Mule Deer survey in May. And this is a longstanding survey. We've done aerial surveys in the same 24 study areas since the 1950 saw some great data out there and good news for you mule deer hunters especially in their native habitat in southwestern North Dakota that's where the survey was conducted. North Dakota's mule deer population is 13% higher than last year and 34% above the long term average. So definitely some good news for older hunters in the southwest. Our biologists counted just shy of 3000 mule deer in right around 300 square miles during this year's survey. And the density is something that's really interesting. The density of mule deer in the badlands was 9.8 deer per square mile, and that seems high. But if you look at the Badlands compared to other parts of the state, habitat is definitely the key. There's a lot of grass out there, there's a lot of coolies, there's a lot of brush, there's a lot of trees versus the prairie where we have white tails. And our densities tend to be a little bit lower because a lot of it is cropland. It doesn't have that wildlife habitat. The spring index was higher than 2012, and surprisingly we did have poor fun production last year, but we had a fairly mild winter and they were able to survive. Neil Roberts: All right, great. Good stuff. And hey, more on Mule Deer when we come back. The Dakotan: You're listening to Outdoor Issues with New Roberts on the Dakotan Network. Neil Roberts: Talking Mule Deer today on Outdoor Issues. And Greg the spring weather affects several things, including your fieldwork for this Mule Deer survey. How'd it go? Greg Gullickson: You know, our fisheries folks were plagued by the spring storms and it also affected our mule deer study. But we were able to get both those things completed this spring. Neil Roberts: Good stuff, Greg. And that brings this report to a close. Until next time, I'm Neil Roberts. The Dakotan: You're listening to the Dakotan Network Real, Honest, Local News.
