Caribou, Deer, Elk & Moose - Sounds Wild
Southeast Deer Research

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Southeast Deer Research

The spruce and hemlock forest of southeast Alaska's Mitkof Island was snow-free in December of 2019 when the big black-tailed deer buck bedded down amid the bare stalks of a blueberry thicket. A heavy-bodied, handsome animal, his antlers spread well beyond and above his ears, which were up and cocked forward, perhaps in response to the motion-triggered trail camera that had just taken his picture.

Fish and Game deer biologist Dan Eacker has deployed an array of 64 such cameras in the forest near Petersburg, part of a research project to better understand deer abundance in the area. It's difficult to assess numbers of animals like deer in the dense temperate rainforest, and Eacker is using a variety of tools to develop a reliable method that can be used throughout the region. Game cameras have yielded thousands of pictures. Eacker is also collecting deer pellets, which provide DNA samples, and in the winter of 2020 he will equip 20 deer with GPS tracking collars to better understand their movements through these low elevation rainforests over a two year period. Research so far indicates there are about 4600 deer in this area of Mitkof Island. That's an average of 9.5 deer per square kilometer or 24 deer per square mile.