Texas Hunting Times: Texas Hunting News

Hunters love to discuss deer hunting and deer management. It’s just something that we do, whether it’s after checking out our latest batch of game camera photos or around the campfire after an evening hunt. The longest-standing debate going is the argument over whether or not spike bucks are actually genetically inferior bucks. One study, centered on the white-tailed deer hunting lands of South Texas, aimed to find out if shooting spike bucks really is justified.

Although a spike antlered buck rarely remains a spike after its first set of antlers, many hunters still believe the mantra of “once a spike, always a spike.” Now, the majority of hunters know that this is not true, but will spike bucks produce less on top of their heads in future years than their multi-pointed (yearling) brothers? Past research has only confounded the issue with different studies resulting in conflicting conclusions. Could there be a study that answers this age old question for the deer hunting community once and for all?

A new, ten-year, landmark study done in South Texas on free-ranging whitetail deer by Dr. James C. Kroll and Ben H. Koerth of the Institute for White-tailed Deer Management and Research at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches may provide us deer hunters with an answer. “Because past spike buck studies were conducted on penned animals, the effects of social pressure could not be measured,” Dr. Kroll says. “And social pressure has been shown in other deer species to have a significant impact on antler growth.”

Furthermore, the previous studies never really examined genetics in the classical sense. So about ten years ago Kroll and Koerth decided to add a field of study to their program that would examine the issue and try to answer a very basic question that went beyond genetics: “Can we look at a yearling buck and predict what he will score at maturity?”

Because of geographic conditions and the fact that Dr. Kroll and Ben Koerth had worked with many South Texas ranch owners in the area on previous projects, it was decided to conduct the landmark spike buck study in the Brush Country of South Texas. “Our research methodology was simple,” says Dr. Kroll. “First, we decided to capture only buck fawns and yearlings. Because so much controversy exists about aging deer by tooth wear, we wanted to make sure we knew the age of the bucks we were capturing.

The researcher’s plan was to capture as many buck fawns and yearling bucks as they could each year, and then attempt to recapture them over the next eight or nine years so that they would have a large enough sample size for statistical analysis. Whitetail deer hunting in South Texas is a big deal, but so has been the debate over shooting spike bucks. Read the rest of this article on whitetail deer management and hunting: Shooting spike bucks for deer management.

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Dr. James C. Kroll and Ben H. Koerth of the Institute for White-tailed Deer Management and Research at Stephen F. Austin State University set out to determine if yearling (1.5 years old) spike and three point bucks are actually are inferior to other bucks with four or more antler points. The results could impact deer hunting on private lands across Texas, as well as the rest of the US. So how did these researchers go about getting the data they needed?

They turned to ranch owners in South Texas. One of the first questions the researchers attempted to answer was: “How many spikes and 3-point yearlings are out there and do their numbers change over a period of time?” As of 2006, they captured, marked and released a total of 884 whitetail buck fawns and 1,132 yearlings. Numbered, color-coded ear tags were placed in the ears of each buck along with tattoos in the event the ear tags were lost.

The study began in 1997 and took place on twelve different South Texas ranches over a five-county area. During the following years attempts were made to recapture as many of the previously tagged bucks as possible. Antler measurement data was taken from all of the recaptured bucks as well as the newly captured buck fawns and yearlings each year, and the results were quite dramatic.

Data gathered over an eight year period showed that the number of spikes and 3 point bucks changed significantly from year to year on the same properties. If spike antlers were caused by poor genetics, would these yearly changes have occurred in such short periods of time? “Absolutely not,” Dr. Kroll says. “The overall genetics of a deer herd simply cannot change that fast.”

However, the real meat of this landmark spike buck study goes well beyond the question of how many spikes and 3-pointers are in the herd. “We divided all of the yearling bucks we captured into two categories,” Dr. Kroll continues. “Yearlings that had only spikes or 3-point antlers were in one category, and yearlings with four or more antler points on their first set were in the other. We did this because we reasoned that these two classes of yearling bucks are easy for hunters to identify. We got some very interesting results on the 21⁄2- and 31⁄2-year-old bucks that were recaptured, but the age of 41⁄2 is where the results were the most dramatic.

“Studies repeatedly have shown that whitetail bucks do not reach maturity until four years of age, and by the time the bucks in our study had reached 4 1⁄2, there was no significant difference in any of the antler measurements, no matter what the buck started out with his first year. The antlers were just as wide, just as heavy and had just as many points. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in gross Boone and Crockett (B&C) score for the bucks,” he says.

Many of the bucks that had been yearling spikes had grown 130-inch racks by age 4 1⁄2. Ironically, the average B&C score of all bucks killed across Texas each year is about 131 inches. “It appears from our data that the spikes and 3 point bucks are genetically equal at birth to multi-point yearlings for antler growth potential,” Dr. Kroll concludes. “It just seems to take some deer a little longer to show their capability. The trick is, you have to let them grow up before it becomes obvious. Genetics certainly is an interesting aspect of whitetail management, and fun to debate around the campfire, but genetics is the least important of all the factors leading to the production of quality bucks.”

So should spikes, or, for that matter, any bucks, ever be culled from the herd? According to Dr. Kroll, perhaps in some cases. It seems to be a very complicated issue, and it depends on the deer management goals of each ranch. “In our opinion, instead of trying to cull bucks, landowners and hunters are far better off focusing their attention on things they can do something about, such as deer nutrition.

Today the question of shooting more does is the only issue that generates as much controversy as that of what to do about spike bucks, and that’s a no-brainer for most hunters. We should all do our part in trying to shoot more does. It’s essential for the well being of the deer herd.” Fewer deer on the landscape means more food for the remaining animals and well-fed deer equates to improved whitetail deer hunting for the property owners. Habitat management is one of the most important—but often overlooked—aspects of growing better deer.

White-tailed deer populations can be impacted by a variety of deer diseases, most of which affect localized populations. Chronic wasting disease (CWD), however, has implications that can be more widespread. CWD is a fatal disease of North American elk and deer, including both white-tailed deer and mule deer. The recent discovery of CWD in breeder deer in Missouri reiterates the need for continuance in monitoring whitetails and taking action when questionable deer are discovered in Texas captive deer breeding pens.

The whitetail deer that tested positive for CWD was a captive white-tailed deer inspected as part of Missouri’s CWD disease surveillance and testing program. Preliminary CWD tests were conducted by the USDA National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, and a “tested positive” result was disclosed last week. That one positive test meant Missouri had to add its name to the long list of CWD-positive states. Will it happen to Texas too?

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) has investigated several deer smuggling cases involving whitetails brought into Texas from several states where CWD has been confirmed through testing, including Missouri. “This is why we banned importation of deer from out of state and why we continue to monitor for illegal activity,” said Carter Smith, Executive Director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

In February 2010 a case of CWD was confirmed in Linn County, Missouri, on a captive hunting preserve operated by the same entity, Heartland Wildlife Ranches, LLC. The Linn County facility was depopulated and no further CWD infection was identified at that facility. The current case was identified through increased surveillance required by the deer disease management plan implemented from the previous CWD incident.

Since TPWD implemented a CWD surveillance initiative 10 years ago, more than 35,000 whitetail deer have been tested in Texas. But to date, all CWD test in Texas have come back “not detected.” Whitetail deer important both socially and economically to the people of Texas. Just because CWD has yet to be found does not mean it’s time to quit monitoring.

“The absence of any disease findings is by no means a reason to stop CWD testing whitetail deer in Texas,” Smith said. “The best measures we can take are proactive ones, and our goal is to keep CWD out of the state at all costs.”

There is no indication that CWD in deer can lead to disease in native livestock or people. Wildlife officials regard prevention as the primary and most effective tool to combat CWD. Once established in a wild whitetail population, deer diseases are extremely difficult, and sometimes impossible, to eradicate. Many believe it’s only a matter of time before CWD makes its way into Texas, one way or another. The state will begin CWD testing of elk in Texas starting on January 1, 2012.