This summer, drone pilot and deer tracker Shon Butler uncovers devastating whitetail die-offs in Ohio and West Virginia, attributing the crisis to Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD). He reports mortality rates reaching up to 100% in certain areas, comparing the situation to historic outbreaks that wiped out whole herds in Montana, highlighting the severity of this year’s crisis.
Butler, who operates a deer tracking service covering 12 states, began surveying affected properties for free after receiving pleas from worried landowners. His findings reveal staggering death rates, driven by a surge in EHD-carrying midges due to a perfect storm of wet and hot weather conditions. As he identifies days-old carcasses via drone technology, Butler encourages landowners to adopt long-term recovery strategies to mitigate the impacts of the epidemic on local deer populations and hunting economies.
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