Low-flying helicopters are used to survey mule deer populations.
JEROME — Over the next several weeks, wildlife biologists from Fish and Game’s Magic Valley Region will perform mule deer herd composition surveys and capture operations using low-flying helicopters.
Through late December, Fish and Game biologists will be flying herd composition surveys in the northern part of the region, primarily in the Bennett and Picabo hills and the desert area north of Gooding and Shoshone, which includes game management units 45, 52 and 49. Flights will also be occurring in the southern portion of the Magic Valley Region south of Twin Falls and Burley, in game management units 54 and 55.
The purpose of the herd composition survey, according to Fish and Game officials, is to gather herd composition of bucks, does and fawns. The information is used by game managers to evaluate herd productivity, which when combined with other sources of data like hunter harvest, deer abundance, fawn survival …