Deer University - Culling

[Shurshot]

Is there a study related to culling?


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[JonW]

Well, to be fair, nothing as scientific as a guy, a feeder, and a spike tag. [emoji23]


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[kyle1974]

Deer University - Culling

So where are they? Not the TPW spike study. Not krolls spike study. I’ve personally watched several of the double black ear tag bucks. I’m pretty familiar with that. Something regarding low fence culling not changing anything.

[Silentnight]

Ok.
I will start with something that I wrote for members of my lease several years ago

In an effort to explain whether culling can alter the genetics of a wild population, I wanted to explain a little about selection and how it works in a wild population. Although it may not appear to be, the example I present is an over simplified model. The actual biology of a natural population is a lot more complex. I am using gene and allele interchangeably to eliminate some of the genetic jargon.
Selecting for or against antler traits in a wild population will not reduce or eliminate a gene(s) from the population. Since antlers are only exhibited on half of the population, selection for/against the characteristic is only occurring on 50% of the population (assuming a 1:1 buck:doe ratio, the percentage is actually less when there are more does). Let’s assume that the deer population is 200, the frequency of a gene that is to be selected for/against is around 10%, the characteristic is easy to identify and there are only 2 genes. The actual population size is actually a lot higher, the gene frequency is probably lower, the trait is not displayed the same in all individuals, and there are probably 10 plus genes in a population. In addition, the development of antlers is influenced by a lot of genes, and not just one gene. The more genes that contribute to a trait, the more complex the problem becomes.
If this is the case, there are around 40 individuals (20 bucks and 20 does) per year that carry the allele (I’ll spare you the mathematical calculation on why it isn’t just 10% of 200 or 20). Annually, at least 20 individuals (does) are carrying the gene, but you can’t select against the trait because they do not produce antlers. This leaves 20 individuals that are male and carrying the gene that you desire to remove. In a given year, let’s assume that one can do a good job of culling the gene in question, and you remove 15 of the 20 individuals. One can assume that you also culled at least 10 other bucks, and 30 does. Of the does that were harvested 10% of the does contained the gene in question. After culling you would have a total of 32 deer that have the gene and 113 deer that do not carry the gene in the population after a yearly harvest. This leaves 32 non-favorable genes and 290 total genes in the population. Each individual carries two genes (145 individuals x 2 alleles). To calculate the gene frequency after harvest divide 32 by 290, this equals .11 or 11%. Although one attempted to selectively remove an unfavorable gene from the population, the end result is that the gene frequency actually remained the same. Several of the assumptions that I made are not realistic regarding a low-fenced population (i.e. population size, number of genes, , etc).
Antler characteristics are a phenotypic characteristic (a characteristic you can see or measure). These traits are the result of genotype (genetics), environment, and the interaction between genotype(genetics) and environment
Phenotype = genotype + environment + geneXenviro
Since we cannot alter the gene frequencies in a low fenced natural population, let’s examine the environmental component. The environmental component is comprised primarily of age and nutrition. We can control parts of this component with supplemental protein and allowing bucks to mature. Obviously, we cannot control the amount of annual rainfall or mortality of a specific deer.
However, post-rut mortality can be minimized by supplemental feeding (and praying for rain).

Just a thought, but what if you could cull out all the bucks that have poor traits and won't make a trophy, then start culling all older does to start removing poor traits on their side. Could you then assume that you are taking more of the, 100% poor traited buck/doe cross from the population?

[HighwayHunter]

Just a thought, but what if you could cull out all the bucks that have poor traits and won't make a trophy, then start culling all older does to start removing poor traits on their side. Could you then assume that you are taking more of the, 100% poor traited buck/doe cross from the population?

Old doe =/= bad traits, and bucks don’t always look exactly like their sires. The dead head I posted the photo of earlier has several buck offspring (we’ve made educated guesses on them due to frame) and two of them are bigger than he was at 6, as 4yr olds. Not all NFL running backs have kids that can run a 4.4 40, not all geniuses have kids that graduate from college at 17.


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[Patton]

I shared your mentality forever. I finally let a few nice bucks walk just for the heck of it a few years ago. Just to see what would happen. Now they are pushing 6 and my own lease members would shoot these bucks if they saw them. I honestly thought 1 or two were going to die this year. They didn't.

I share Patton's mentality, and I'm curious to hear about your feeding program and how much you pressure your deer during the season. We feed the snot out of our bucks and we keep the pressure low in our areas. The guys that hunt 1/2 mile from us that don't do the same never have and never do see the bucks that we are letting walk. I understand that each situation is different but this has worked magic for us.

Edit: It may have to do with the terrain on your land also. Is it brushy, open, have cattle, etc?

580 acres of post oak savannah that has light-moderate hunting pressure. I’d say 75% of deer hunting there is with a bow, and the only rifle hunting is on corned roads and not feeders. Last year 24k lbs of protein was fed between Jan 1 and Mid August. There used to not be big deer but I have to give major props to TBHr The Texan for his discipline on keeping bucks on the no shoot list until they are 6.5. Certainly isn’t easy to pass a 4.5 or 5.5 yr old 10pt that scores 130+ on a smaller low fence property, but if you do he’ll likely be even bigger if he survives.