The first reports start circulating every year in August, like sketchy dispatches from a military front.
“Seeing carcasses around water sources—bucks and does.”
“Localized mortality.”
“Hearing about big die-offs along our major rivers.”
These are the leading indicators that whitetail deer are dying from epizootic hemorrhagic disease, better known as EHD and sometimes called “blue tongue.” It’s a cruel virus spread by a biting midge that metamorphizes as an adult in the late summer, just as hunters are preparing for fall seasons, asking bosses and spouses for time off, and patterning the behavior of bucks they plan to target.
The disease is especially virulent in hot, dry summers following abnormally moist spring seasons. It can be so deadly that localized populations of deer can be nearly wiped out in especially intense epidemics. In my homeland…
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Game & Fish East (Digital) - 1 Issue, August 2023