Deer Herd Fall To Their Death At Bishop Pass

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maverick
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Deer Herd Fall To Their Death At Bishop Pass

Post by maverick »

Posted on Bowsite.com, 11/17/17:
This happened near Bishop Ca. A large herd was moving across a mountain side and apparently hit ice. They estimated close to 70 were either dead or dying. There were two people that found them and were dispatching the ones that were still breathing. Just what Ca didn’t need was more casualties to its deer herds
Poster there reported the following:
Brad was down at Mac's Sporting Goods and got the whole story on this. Apparently last night, these deer and many, many others (around 100 deer) were trying to make their way to their wintering grounds on this side of the mountains and hit ice on very steep areas. From below Lone Pine to Bishop Pass these deer hit the ice and tumbled down the steep boulders to their deaths, or to mortal injury. Brad was told that the couple in the picture were actually slitting the throats of the mortally injured in order to put them out of their pain.
Heard about this, but did not know that the numbers were in the 70's. :eek:
Has anyone else ever witness anything like this before?
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Re: Deer Herd Fall To Their Death At Bishop Pass

Post by John Harper »

Wow, that's unbelievable. Looks like a few nice bucks mixed in with the horror. Never seen anything like that before. Chilling.

John
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Re: Deer Herd Fall To Their Death At Bishop Pass

Post by rlown »

Did anyone call CDFW to come out and harvest the meat? That would feed a lot of those in need of food.
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Re: Deer Herd Fall To Their Death At Bishop Pass

Post by SSSdave »

"From below Lone Pine to Bishop Pass these deer hit the ice and tumbled down the steep boulders to their deaths"...

Quite sad. :(

What has Lone Pine got to do with Bishop Pass? Deer are not stupid as they live in this places. There are cliffs west of the switchbacks at 11,800 but would be surprised if they did went that way. Further east towards Jigsaw it is much less steep however there is large talus. After the recent snow storm and cold air behind the storm, deer down in Le Conte Canyon may have decided to leave the high country so went up into Dusy Basin to escape over the pass. And at the pass there could have been 2 to 4 feet of new heavy high water content snow. After the front passed there was a day of rather cold air that could have frozen that snow making icy surfaces. If cliffs on one side and big talus on the other blocked the deer, they may have chosen to go down at this map crosshairs point,

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=37.11807,-118.54140&z=15&t=T

that looks not so steep enough at the top that they might try but then at 11680 is a steeper section. Being icy slippery they may have not been able to climb easily back up so down they went. Just like backpackers, never trust only what one can see when going down a Sierra granite canyon slope ang rather know what the topo shows down below where one can visually see. But a deer...
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Re: Deer Herd Fall To Their Death At Bishop Pass

Post by rlown »

Dave.. Deer don't use maps. They use trails that they've been using for years and trained after they are born from the 'elders.' It becomes a "have to" compulsion to move from one area they know to another area they know. I've sat and watched such movement behavior out of deer season, and they remember and know.

Unfortunately, they waited too long and the trail froze. Really sad..
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Re: Deer Herd Fall To Their Death At Bishop Pass

Post by maverick »

Dave.. Deer don't use maps.
:lol:
Maybe this herd was not "mapper.acme" savvy Russ. ;)
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Re: Deer Herd Fall To Their Death At Bishop Pass

Post by SSSdave »

:lol:
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Re: Deer Herd Fall To Their Death At Bishop Pass

Post by rlown »

I'm not laughing.
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Re: Deer Herd Fall To Their Death At Bishop Pass

Post by Wandering Daisy »

When a deer is hit by a car, the meat is seldom salvageable; the meat gets mushy. I suspect that may be the same if they fell any distance.

I wonder if some of the deer simply were knocked down by those above them who fell. Whatever the cause, very sad.
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Re: Deer Herd Fall To Their Death At Bishop Pass

Post by balzaccom »

If deer don't use maps, why does CalTrans keep asking the to use the deer Xings on the highways???
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