1971, concurrent with moderately heavy hunting harvests. It 

 is also possible that some net emigration of yearlings 

 occurred during those years . 



To place population fluctuations and growth rates of 

 1960-1987 in perspective for later theoretical discussions, we 

 need to include estimates of earlier population levels, back 

 to about 1930 (Fig. 4.7). Although the population estimates 

 indicated by the dashed lines in Figure 4.7 cannot be 

 precisely verified, historical notes discussed earlier 

 (Chapter 3) indicate their general validity. 



Mean 



1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 



1940 



1950 



r 

 1960 



Year 



1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 



1970 



1980 1987 



Estimated mule deer population levels during 

 early winter, 1930-1987. See text for 

 derivation of estimates prior to 1960 and for 

 explanation of curves A (stable growth rate) and 

 B (semi-logistic growth). 



Mule deer populations during the early to mid 19 30s were 

 extremely low. Old timers talk about the rarity of seeing deer 

 and that seeing a fresh deer track during this period was 

 cause for excitement. When we compare these recollections to 

 our observations during low deer numbers in the mid 1970s (400 

 deer, 1.5/km 2 ), we believe that fewer than 100 deer (0.4/km 2 ) 

 probably occurred on the study area during the mid-1950s. For 



purposes of calculation, we chose 

 reasonable estimate of the low. 



50 deer (0.2 /km 2 ) as a 



89 



