A video recently shot in South Dakota of a mule deer and whitetail buck that fought until they fell over in complete exhaustion encapsulates a region-wide conflict between the species. 

In the bigger picture, whitetail seem to be winning the war, but at least in northeast Wyoming, mule deer won a battle. 

That’s thanks to disease, Wyoming state Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, told Cowboy State Daily.

“I have maybe 50 whitetails left on my property, and the mule deer are coming back. They’re a welcome sight. They do way less crop damage,” said Driskill, whose family’s ranch is right next to Devils Tower National Monument. 

A recent outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease, commonly called blue tongue, hammered whitetail in the region, but didn’t badly affect mule deer, he said. 

That could mean that the muley victory will be short lived, Driskill said, because whitetail breed like rabbits. 

“Whitetail are like a weed,” he said. “Once they take hold, they have twins and triplets, and they’ll just take over an area.”

Bucks Duke It Out

Driskill has run the family ranch for 50 years, and said he’s watched whitetails and mule deer clash from time to time. 

But for bucks of the two species to get into an all-out battle to the finish is rare, he said. 

As to why the bucks in South Dakota brawled, it might have been because of a severe shortage of does during the rut or deer mating season, he said. 

Generally speaking, mule deer and whitetail stick to their own kind when it comes to mating – and to bucks clashing over who gets access to does. 

However, the two species do occasionally cross-breed, producing rare hybrid offspring. 

The video, posted online by Buckstorm outdoors media, shows the whitetail and mule deer bucksflopped over on their sides with their antlers locked together. The bucks are completely exhausted from what must have been a prolonged battle. 

The bucks were separated, and both limped away, but it’s not known if either of them lived, according to Buckstorm. 

In a text message to Cowboy State Daily, a Buckstorm representative said that the video was shot on private property in South Dakota, and the landowners didn’t want to be named. 

‘Whitetail Are More Aggressive’

Driskill said that on his property and across the Black Hills in Wyoming and South Dakota, “mule deer and whitetails are in direct competition.”

And overall, whitetail have the edge, he said. Even though whitetails are the smaller of the two species, they’re scrappier. 

“Whitetail are more aggressive than mule deer and they tend to habituate toward people a lot better,” he said. 

That’s why he worried that the mule deer victory he’s seen in the wake of the blue tongue outbreak won’t last. 

Split The Tags?

Northeast Wyoming has some prime mule deer habitat. And rich nutrients in the soil there could produce some monster bucks, Driskill said. 

But he thinks the Wyoming Game and Fish’s approach to deer management there isn’t working. 

In much of the region, hunters can get a general (over-the-counter) deer tag and kill whichever species they like, he said. And out-of-state hunters in particular like to kill mule deer.

“There’s whitetail hunting opportunity all over the country, but this is one of the few places with mule deer hunting opportunity,” Driskill said, so non-resident hunters relish the chance to get a muley. 

Driskill has advocated for splitting the hunting tags for mule deer and whitetails and managing the species separately. 

“The whitetail tag should be over-the-counter, and the mule deer tags ought to be draw tags,” he said. 

General, or over-the-counter deer tags may be purchased at any time. For limited quota draw tags, hunters must apply months in advance, and not all hunters who put in for tags will draw them.

Driskill backed legislation to split mule deer and whitetail tags during the Legislature’s 2024 session, but that bill failed. 

He said he doesn’t plan to introduce a similar bill during the upcoming 2025 session. 

But Game and Fish should still consider separate management for the two species, at least in northeast Wyoming, he said. 

“If Game and Fish worked on it, northeast Wyoming would really be known for mule deer,” he said. “The mule deer are surging on my ranch. And they’ll only surge as long as whitetail deer are scarce.” 

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.

The Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce isn’t reacting yet to a second election of President-elect Donald Trump.

Rick Howe runs the chamber and told Jackson Hole Community Radio in December that three chamber businesses had reached out to him with immigration-related concerns. Howe does not soon anticipate the chamber taking a stance on immigration policies. But he said his policy teams are preparing to discuss changes as they come, such as mass deportations.

“We want to make sure that we have access to the workers that we need as a community to help us continue to do what we do on a daily basis,” Howe said. “Economic viability is key for us.”

He said he doesn’t have up-to-date data on the community’s number of working immigrants — documented or otherwise. But he said immigrants mostly work in the tourism and service industries, Teton County’s economic engine.

For Teton County and surrounding communities, how many immigrants would be targeted in a second Trump administration is still unknown.

But as Trump prepares to return to the White House, the question of how many will be impacted by his policies has become increasingly relevant for immigrants from many walks of life.

Trump’s administration promises the largest mass deportation in the country’s history, after the Biden administration’s deportations already hit a 10-year high. As summarized by the Niskanen Center, a potential policy playbook for the second Trump term, Project 2025, proposes cutting protections for holders of Temporary Protected Status, young adults known as Dreamers, more than 175,000 Ukrainians, in addition to restrictions for H-2A and H-2B temporary worker visas.

For unauthorized immigrants and migrants, part of what makes the population hard to track is obvious: They aren’t documented in the U.S. census. The census doesn’t separate documented and undocumented residents — it just totals.

University of Wyoming Professor Roger Coupal researches the economics of community developments across the state, with a focus on the agricultural sector. He has some rough estimates, putting the state’s number of undocumented migrants at 5,000.

Teton County, according to the U.S. census, is home to 2,900 residents born outside the U.S., or 12.5% of the county’s population. Just under a third have become naturalized citizens, according to the state’s Chief Economist Wenlin Liu.

Coupal noted that many who come to the U.S. are fleeing “extreme situations” when they come to Jackson in search of work or safer living conditions. As more immigrants settle and become part of the community and economy, many ski towns in the West, including Jackson Hole,could be devastated by mass deportations, he added.

Until new policies or deportation practices exist, though, Howe said his organization would be proactive. It’s a lot of “wait and see” until January, he said.

Howe envisions the chamber’s role as a source of information and connection.

He mentioned other nonprofits like Voices JH and One22, with whom the chamber could facilitate conversations, correct misinformation and be a source to which individuals and businesses alike can turn.

To start, the chamber is planning a Feb. 6 “Business Over Breakfast,” a monthly networking event for members, to address questions businesses may have a few weeks into Trump’s second administration.

Coupal said a loss of migrant workers and Trump’s impending tariffs could thrust the country into a recession.

“You could see a reduction in output on the industry side because we don’t have workers,” Coupal said.

There’s no research, he said, that supports Trump’s previous claims that immigrants hurt the economy.

A recent report by the American Immigration Council said mass deportation would cost the U.S. $315 billion initially, with long-term costs potentially tripling.

Jeremy Robbins, executive director of the American Immigration Council, said in a recent press release that mass deportation would come at an “extraordinary cost” to the government while hindering the economy. He warned of “tens of billions of tax-payer dollars lost, already-strained industries devastated, millions of people locked up in detention, and thousands of families torn apart.”

The study also indicates that national GDP could shrink 4.2% to 6.8%. For comparison, the economy decreased by 4.3% during the 2007 to 2009 recession, according to the study.

“We’re making the assumption that somehow Americans are going to replace all these people,” Coupal said, “and they won’t.”

CASPER, Wyo. — Former Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney and 19 other people will receive the second highest civilian medal from President Joe Biden in a ceremony Thursday afternoon.

According to the Associated Press, President Biden is also giving a medal to Bennie Thompson, who alongside Cheney oversaw the congressional investigation into the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

“President Biden believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others,” the White House said in a statement, according to the AP. “The country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice.”

Last year, Biden honored the people who helped defend the Capitol from the mob of angry supporters of Donald Trump, who had refused to accept the presidential election results of 2020 and repeatedly tried to overturn them.

Once a staunch conservative and Trump supporter, Cheney became an outspoken critic of the former and now president elect. She supported his second impeachment, and eventually had a prominent role in the riot investigation. In retaliation, Republicans ousted her from her high-ranking House Republican Conference, and she later lost to Trump-endorsed challenger Harriet Hageman in Wyoming’s 2022 primary elections.

Even after winning the 2024 presidential elections, Trump has refused to walk away from lies about the 2020 election and has specifically spoken out against Cheney and Thompson. In an Interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” he said, “Honestly, they should go to jail.”

According to the AP, other honorees include Frank Butler, who set new standards for using tourniquets on war injuries; Diane Carlson Evans, an Army nurse during the Vietnam War who founded the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation; and Eleanor Smeal, an activist who led women’s rights protests in the 1970s and fought for equal pay.

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