I just wanted to see all of these in one post, lol. Edited and moved the pics a couple posts down so they are full sized.
Nah, KS may be one of the top states but Ohio ranked #6 in 2014 (can't find a newer list). 20 Best Whitetail States for 2014 - North American Whitetail
I do wish in Illinois we could have mineral sites and feeders. Makes photo ops easier. I know people that say screw it and do it anyway but I've seen first hand the power of EHD and around here it hit us hard. There's a good reason they put a stop to them here. Heard they just followed suit in MO as well. :-/
I haven't heard anything about MO doing anything with mineral and feeders. EHD is not transmitted from deer to deer anyway, it's through midge fly transmission.
Ahh. MO is discouraging people in the northern counties from using feeders and mineral but I haven't seen anything where they have made it illegal yet. Though I may just not have heard it yet. If it's spread though prions that are basically bulletproof then I doubt there's any measure than can control it because it'll be spread through food plots and water sources as quickly as mineral or feeders. Deer are extremely social animals, they interact a lot all the time. I don't see that feeders or mineral sites increase their interaction at all. I could and have set cameras on the edge of food plots, water holes and crop fields and gotten the same kinds of pics. Deer trails are another good example..high traffic area where any tasty vegetation gets picked at by almost every deer...also scrapes and rubs. I think the DNR is grasping at straws to appear like they are trying to do something when the reality is that if nature doesn't fix the problem there probably is very little we can do one way or another.
it looks like they are just going to add a handful to a handful of counties where feeding/minerals is prohibited.
You're right, I did read that and my landlord brought that to my attention last year as well, I just forgot about the details. It was restricted in those counties and discouraged elsewhere. I still think they're peeing in the wind. Like I said deer literally lick each other all the time, lick rubs, rub orbital glands, drink from the same water holes, etc... As far as making abnormally high concentrations of deer via feeders and mineral, I have crop fields and food plots that regularly have 20 and even 60 deer a night in them and they are already concentrated due to food and cover. We're going to try to phase feeders out anyway in exchange for year round food plots just due to the sheer expense but it's not going to cut down on enough deer to deer interaction to change anything IMHO. As far as that goes if the prion infected soil dust gets airborne it's going to travel with or without deer.
I do see your point. If they aren't congregated at a manmade site they will be congregated somewhere else because of their herd mentality. makes perfect sense
and I agree, why do humans feel the need to disrupt a natural biological process? CWD wasn't caused by human impact was it? let nature do its thing as cruel as it is.
