South Dakota?

[schoff]

I have not understood the doe tags for antelope in SD the last 2 years with the low numbers, I was at a ranch that normally holds a few hunderd antelope and saw maybe 50-75 during deer season.

They are doing the same with elk the numbers are terrible, calf mortality is high, and we still have cow tags.....I just dont get it?

[sdcowboy]

i am a landowner in sd, the last 3 years there hasn't been an antelope killed on my place. We generally have a 100 or so goats running around now we are lucky to see 5 to 10. Game and fish doesn't listen to the landowners on how many there is and is only interested in selling tags!!!!!!not on the numbers. What has happened to the antelope, and elk is now happening to our deer population.

[PLP]

i am a landowner in sd, the last 3 years there hasn't been an antelope killed on my place. We generally have a 100 or so goats running around now we are lucky to see 5 to 10. Game and fish doesn't listen to the landowners on how many there is and is only interested in selling tags!!!!!!not on the numbers. What has happened to the antelope, and elk is now happening to our deer population.

if no one is shooting your antelope what is happening to them?Blue toungue?Winter Kill?Predators?Human interference(roads,energy,fences,construction)?

[sdcowboy]

We had 3 sever winters with 3 to 4 feet of snow on the level. if that wasnt hard enough on them the cats and coyotes are. The cat problem that the state is having isnt only in the black hills. the arent as many cats on the plains as in the hills but with the population growing they have to go some where. Game and Fish have cut tags back, but way to late as usual. in some places there was more tags issued then there were antelope in that county. Not much chance for a come back when that happens.

[PLP]

you are right..mulies,and antelope a real impressionable..I guess it is tricky....you want to restrict harvest to a certain point so you have enough animals incase you get a bad winter kill...but if you get too many and dont have a winter kill..they can get disease...and if they get a disease then get hit by a winter kill..which is apparently what has happened since 2009,you get low numbers..and when guys dont take it upon themselves to hold off on does when numbers get low,and predators start working on them..well you get the idea.

Same thing goes for turkeys back home.We never got winter kill,but the predators are not controlled at all.You need every hen possible to nest.80% of the hens didnt succeed..mostly due to predators..Then you got guys who want to shoot hens(not legal where I am from)because they cant kill toms with hens as competetion..they dont realize if they take the hens out they are killing off the tukreys completely in the areas where they are already struggling to survive.