Sight, smell of dead deer points to major EHD outbreak.
By MARK HENCKEL, Gazette Outdoors Editor.
For bowhunter John Bishop, it wasn’t just the whitetails he didn’t see from his tree stand on the Yellowstone River bottoms east of Hysham. It was the dead deer he saw and the stench of more dead deer that assaulted his nostrils from the underbrush.
For landowner Ross Woolley on Pryor Creek, it wasn’t just the reports of dead deer from his friends and the sight of more dead deer in his fish ponds. It was the almost-eerie absence of whitetails in fields that are normally full of deer each evening at this time of year.
From Columbus to past Hysham on the Yellowstone, on Rock Creek, the Bighorn, the Clarks Fork and the Stillwater river bottoms, the reports are rolling in that white-tailed deer are dying from Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease – EHD.
By all indications, the die-off from this fatal virus, which is spread by a biting midge, is a big one across southern portions of Montana this year.
Bishop, of Billings, has been to his bowhunting spot near Hysham twice in the past week, on Saturday and again on Tuesday.
“I found about five dead deer the first time. Then I walked the whole property Tuesday and found six more,” he said. “It really stinks down there and some of the brush is really thick. I didn’t go back in. I’m sure there were more dead ones back in the brush and that was what I was smelling.”
The dead whitetails Bishop found showed the die-off had been going on for some time.
“All the deer I found Tuesday were does and fawns. All of them were within 10 to 20 yards of the water. Some of the ones I found weren’t even bloated. They looked like they had died in the last day or two. Some of the ones I found the other day were pretty decomposed,” he said.
And when he tried hunting, what he saw was far from normal for this usually whitetail-thick stretch of the Yellowstone River bottoms.
“Usually, there are deer everywhere. I walked from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and saw three whitetails and one mule deer,” Bishop said. “Bowhunting on Saturday night, where I normally see 20 deer and a bunch of bucks, I saw just two fawns from my tree stand. I saw two little yearlings walking in, then a mule deer buck. No whitetail does. No whitetail bucks.”
Woolley, who owns 150 acres on Pryor Creek south of Huntley, said, “This is a major die-off over a big area. On my place on Pryor Creek, I can show you a dozen dead deer. I had a friend who floated the Bighorn downstream from Hardin and he counted 30. Another friend saw a lot of them in the water dead below Huntley on the Yellowstone. He was in a jet boat. He was fishing. And he saw them.”
On his own place, Woolley said he began finding dead deer several weeks ago. He found them dead in his fish ponds. Driving around his place, he could smell more dead deer back in the brush.
“My fields at night normally have 25 to 50 deer in them and I saw three in them last night. The night before, I didn’t see anything. The whole place smells of dead deer,” Woolley said. “Talking to my other neighbors, it’s the same way – there are no deer in the fields and they’re finding them dead.”
Reports like this have been coming in with more and more frequency in the past couple of weeks, according to Charlie Eustace, regional wildlife manager for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks in Billings. He expects the calls to continue until the first hard frost, which typically kills off the biting midge that spreads the disease.
“We have had phone calls all through last week and I’m sure that nothing has slowed it down yet,” Eustace said. “We’ve had reports from the Yellowstone as far west as Columbus, the Clarks Fork, Rock Creek, Stillwater.”
Eustace said EHD is a virus similar to blue tongue in sheep. It affects primarily white-tailed deer in Eastern Montana and doesn’t occur west of Billings’ FWP Region Five.
“In some respects, it’s kind of a mystery. It does require a host like the biting midge. That transmits the disease. EHD doesn’t usually manifest itself until we’ve got hot, dry spells. The outbreaks usually end when we get a killing frost which kills the midges. It normally starts in late August and we’ve had it run into October before we’ve had that real hard freeze. When the biting midge dies due to freezing weather, the question is where does the virus harbor itself? We don’t know,” Eustace said.
“In areas of high deer density, because of the close proximity of deer, it’s easy for the midge to spread the disease,” he added. “In areas of lighter deer density, a lower percentage of the deer would be taken.”
Eustace said that EHD hits some deer harder than others. Often, dead deer are found near water.
“There’s no one-size-fits-all,” he said. “In many cases, the head and tongue may be swollen. There may be some bloody froth coming out of the nose. Internal examination may show that it would look like measles on the internal organs because of the tiny hemorrhages on the organs.
“On the quick ones, it would be about three days from when they got the disease until they died. Then again, it could drag on for weeks,” Eustace said. “We’ve had some people who have reported emaciated deer – deer that looked very thin. Normally, that isn’t associated with EHD, but apparently there are several levels of the disease they can get and at lower levels, they can lose a lot of weight.
“And it’s sometimes difficult to pinpoint that EHD was the cause of death. You can’t tell for sure unless you do a serological test on them and if it’s 24 hours after the deer dies, it’s too late. The virus decomposes that quickly.”
Eustace said there really isn’t much that can be done to stop the disease. It comes and goes from year to year in parts of Eastern Montana. Some areas are hit hard. Some are hit less hard.
“Overall, the literature states that it can take 25 to 50 percent of the population, but there would be pockets of high density where you’d exceed that and other areas that would be under that. That’s the average range. But when you look at the number of whitetails along the Yellowstone and its tributaries, that’s hundreds and hundreds of deer which could be affected,” he said.
“Short of eliminating the biting midge, I’m not aware of anything that can be done,” Eustace said. “And when you talk about eliminating the midge, that gets you into pesticides that may have far worse side effects than the EHD outbreaks themselves.”
People don’t have to worry about contracting the disease themselves, he said.
“People don’t need to be extremely fearful,” Eustace said. “They’re not at risk from handling an infected deer or eating from an infected deer – which is different from Chronic Wasting Disease.
“Archers would be the most susceptible to taking an EHD deer because of the time of year they’re hunting,” he added. “By the time rifle season opens, the disease would have run its course. At least, we hope that a killing frost comes before then and puts an end to it.”
Mark Henckel is the outdoor editor of The Billings Gazette. His columns appear Thursdays and Sundays. He can be contacted at 657-1395 or athenckel@billingsgazette.com.
Sight, smell of dead deer points to major EHD outbreak.
By MARK HENCKEL, Gazette Outdoors Editor.
For bowhunter John Bishop, it wasn’t just the whitetails he didn’t see from his tree stand on the Yellowstone River bottoms east of Hysham. It was the dead deer he saw and the stench of more dead deer that assaulted his nostrils from the underbrush.
For landowner Ross Woolley on Pryor Creek, it wasn’t just the reports of dead deer from his friends and the sight of more dead deer in his fish ponds. It was the almost-eerie absence of whitetails in fields that are normally full of deer each evening at this time of year.
From Columbus to past Hysham on the Yellowstone, on Rock Creek, the Bighorn, the Clarks Fork and the Stillwater river bottoms, the reports are rolling in that white-tailed deer are dying from Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease – EHD.
By all indications, the die-off from this fatal virus, which is spread by a biting midge, is a big one across southern portions of Montana this year.
Bishop, of Billings, has been to his bowhunting spot near Hysham twice in the past week, on Saturday and again on Tuesday.
“I found about five dead deer the first time. Then I walked the whole property Tuesday and found six more,” he said. “It really stinks down there and some of the brush is really thick. I didn’t go back in. I’m sure there were more dead ones back in the brush and that was what I was smelling.”
The dead whitetails Bishop found showed the die-off had been going on for some time.
“All the deer I found Tuesday were does and fawns. All of them were within 10 to 20 yards of the water. Some of the ones I found weren’t even bloated. They looked like they had died in the last day or two. Some of the ones I found the other day were pretty decomposed,” he said.
And when he tried hunting, what he saw was far from normal for this usually whitetail-thick stretch of the Yellowstone River bottoms.
“Usually, there are deer everywhere. I walked from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and saw three whitetails and one mule deer,” Bishop said. “Bowhunting on Saturday night, where I normally see 20 deer and a bunch of bucks, I saw just two fawns from my tree stand. I saw two little yearlings walking in, then a mule deer buck. No whitetail does. No whitetail bucks.”
Woolley, who owns 150 acres on Pryor Creek south of Huntley, said, “This is a major die-off over a big area. On my place on Pryor Creek, I can show you a dozen dead deer. I had a friend who floated the Bighorn downstream from Hardin and he counted 30. Another friend saw a lot of them in the water dead below Huntley on the Yellowstone. He was in a jet boat. He was fishing. And he saw them.”
On his own place, Woolley said he began finding dead deer several weeks ago. He found them dead in his fish ponds. Driving around his place, he could smell more dead deer back in the brush.
“My fields at night normally have 25 to 50 deer in them and I saw three in them last night. The night before, I didn’t see anything. The whole place smells of dead deer,” Woolley said. “Talking to my other neighbors, it’s the same way – there are no deer in the fields and they’re finding them dead.”
Reports like this have been coming in with more and more frequency in the past couple of weeks, according to Charlie Eustace, regional wildlife manager for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks in Billings. He expects the calls to continue until the first hard frost, which typically kills off the biting midge that spreads the disease.
“We have had phone calls all through last week and I’m sure that nothing has slowed it down yet,” Eustace said. “We’ve had reports from the Yellowstone as far west as Columbus, the Clarks Fork, Rock Creek, Stillwater.”
Eustace said EHD is a virus similar to blue tongue in sheep. It affects primarily white-tailed deer in Eastern Montana and doesn’t occur west of Billings’ FWP Region Five.
“In some respects, it’s kind of a mystery. It does require a host like the biting midge. That transmits the disease. EHD doesn’t usually manifest itself until we’ve got hot, dry spells. The outbreaks usually end when we get a killing frost which kills the midges. It normally starts in late August and we’ve had it run into October before we’ve had that real hard freeze. When the biting midge dies due to freezing weather, the question is where does the virus harbor itself? We don’t know,” Eustace said.
“In areas of high deer density, because of the close proximity of deer, it’s easy for the midge to spread the disease,” he added. “In areas of lighter deer density, a lower percentage of the deer would be taken.”
Eustace said that EHD hits some deer harder than others. Often, dead deer are found near water.
“There’s no one-size-fits-all,” he said. “In many cases, the head and tongue may be swollen. There may be some bloody froth coming out of the nose. Internal examination may show that it would look like measles on the internal organs because of the tiny hemorrhages on the organs.
“On the quick ones, it would be about three days from when they got the disease until they died. Then again, it could drag on for weeks,” Eustace said. “We’ve had some people who have reported emaciated deer – deer that looked very thin. Normally, that isn’t associated with EHD, but apparently there are several levels of the disease they can get and at lower levels, they can lose a lot of weight.
“And it’s sometimes difficult to pinpoint that EHD was the cause of death. You can’t tell for sure unless you do a serological test on them and if it’s 24 hours after the deer dies, it’s too late. The virus decomposes that quickly.”
Eustace said there really isn’t much that can be done to stop the disease. It comes and goes from year to year in parts of Eastern Montana. Some areas are hit hard. Some are hit less hard.
“Overall, the literature states that it can take 25 to 50 percent of the population, but there would be pockets of high density where you’d exceed that and other areas that would be under that. That’s the average range. But when you look at the number of whitetails along the Yellowstone and its tributaries, that’s hundreds and hundreds of deer which could be affected,” he said.
“Short of eliminating the biting midge, I’m not aware of anything that can be done,” Eustace said. “And when you talk about eliminating the midge, that gets you into pesticides that may have far worse side effects than the EHD outbreaks themselves.”
People don’t have to worry about contracting the disease themselves, he said.
“People don’t need to be extremely fearful,” Eustace said. “They’re not at risk from handling an infected deer or eating from an infected deer – which is different from Chronic Wasting Disease.
“Archers would be the most susceptible to taking an EHD deer because of the time of year they’re hunting,” he added. “By the time rifle season opens, the disease would have run its course. At least, we hope that a killing frost comes before then and puts an end to it.”
Mark Henckel is the outdoor editor of The Billings Gazette. His columns appear Thursdays and Sundays. He can be contacted at 657-1395 or athenckel@billingsgazette.com.
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