Sitka Black-tailed Deer Management and Research

Publications & Reports

• Sitka Black-tailed Deer Management and Harvest Reports
• Sitka Black-tailed Deer Research Grant Reports and Publications

Management

Evaluation of deer populations for management is based on a variety of indicators, including pellet-group surveys, hunter contacts, field observations, harvest questionnaires, and mortality transects.

Research

As of 2012, a research project on Sitka Black-tailed deer is underway on northeast Chichagof Island, and deer have been equipped with GPS collars.

Research Projects

• Movement patterns, home range, and habitat use by Sitka black-tailed deer in Southeast Alaska
• Survivorship of Sitka black-tailed deer fawns in Southeast Alaska

Project Information

Movement patterns, home range, and habitat use by Sitka black-tailed deer in Southeast Alaska

Project 2.15, Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Grant. Project Duration: July 1, 2008–June 30, 2012. Principal Investigator: Karen McCoy, Juneau.

We will use of GPS collars to acquire multiple locations/day will increase our knowledge of fine-scale deer movement patterns in time and space as they relate to seasons, habitat, and landscape features. Analyses of movement data at fine-scale data will allow us to better understand how deer move within and between habitat patches and elevation zones, to identify important travel and migration corridors, to detect use of habitats which are relatively rare on the landscape, to compare seasonal and diel patterns of habitat use, to more accurately define home range size and utilization distributions, and to identify diel movement and activity patterns in different seasons and under variable snow and ambient temperature conditions. As such, this project will increase our understanding of deer ecology and enhance our ability to better manage deer populations.

Our study will be conducted on a portion of the northeastern end Chichagof Island, located in southeast Alaska. This area is within Game Management Unit 4. The area consists of river valleys and rugged mountainous terrain that extend to 1200m. In southeast Alaska, temperate rainforest dominated by western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis) and western red cedar (Thuja plicata) interspersed with muskeg bogs characterizes areas below 800m, while subalpine and alpine vegetation as well as icefields can be found at higher elevations. On northeast Chichagof Island, heavy logging in areas has replaced productive old growth forests with seral scrub and second growth forests of varying ages. While deer populations were believed to be moderately high across GMU 4, two recent severe winters have likely reduced deer populations in this area.