The Makah and Quileute tribes have agreed to curtail harvest of antlerless deer in the wake of a study that led biologists to believe that the Olympic Peninsula’s blacktail deer population is declining, the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission said.
The joint decision by the treaty tribes and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife was based on the Makah tribe’s research showing low survival rates for blacktail deer fawns over four years, said Debbie Ross-Preston, the commission’s coastal information officer.
Death claimed nearly three-quarters of 126 radio-collared fawns tracked during the first three years of the four-year study, she said.
The young deer were followed as they moved through Makah reservation lands and private timberlands.
Most of the fawns died from predation by cougars and bobcats, combined with poor body condition caused by hair loss syndrome, which is caused by exotic biting lice, Ross-Preston said.
While hair loss syndrome doesn’t kill deer outright, the incessant licking and scratching caused by the lice prevents the animal from feeding well and distracts its attention from predators, she said.
It also interferes with the deer’s ability to regulate its body temperature, particularly during the winter and spring, when pneumonia can set in.
“The management measures are an intertribal and state milestone,” said Rob McCoy, wildlife division manager for the Makah tribe.
“Everyone worked together to do something to protect the population for the future.
“Harvest is something we can control. We don’t have the capability to accomplish predator control at this time, and we can’t control the hair loss disease,” said McCoy.
“This is the best way to maximize adult doe survival and increase the numbers of offspring,” he said.
Frank Geyer, timber, fish and wildlife biologist for the Quileute tribe, said the community “stepped up based on this information.
“It’s a hardship for many who depend on this meat for their families, but it’s about protecting the resource for the future.”
