Deer left intentionally 
The deer was diseased. 
The deer was of inferior size or in poor condition. 
The terrain was rough or the piace where the deer was killed was a long dis- 
tance from camp and ‘there were no means of packing it out. 
Storms forced the hunters out of the mountains before they had an opportun- 
ity to bring; the-deer into camp. 
More deer were killed by the. party than the licenses permitted. 
The meat had spoiled or the deer was badly shot up. 
Deer left unintentionally 
The hunter could not find the deer after returning to pack it out. 
The deer escaped from the hunter after it was critically wounded. 
SUMMARY 
Studies of the mortality of Rocky Mountain mule deer (Odocoileus 
hemionus hemionus) due to their being crippled during the hunting season have. 
been conducted for the past eight seasons on the Fishlake National Forest in 
central Utah. The estimated legal removals of deer during that period were 
141,000, of which 77,000, or S55 percent, were bucks; 50,000, or 35 percent, 
were does; and 14,000, or 10 percent, were fawns. Determination of the losses 
through cvippling has been attempted primarily through Forest Service employ- 
ees recording all dead deer and paunches of eviscerated deer which they found 
during, and immediately following the close of, the hunting season. These 
data together with the recorded distances between the obServer and each deer 
or paunch at the time each was first sighted have made it possible to arrive 
at a calculated ratio between the dead deer left on the range and those re- 
moved by hunters. The ratio was found to be 1:5.9; or, stated differently, 
the loss through crippling was 17 percent of the legal removal. If crippled 
deer that survived one month after the close of the hunting season were con- 
Sidered a part of the crippling loss, the mortality value was raised toe 21 
percent. 
Additional information ebtained in the Study strongly indicated a 
rather high recovery by hunters of wounded bucks, but a very low recovery of 
antlerless deer. Evidently this difference was in direct response to the 
premimum placed upon the two classes of deer by the hunters, 
