Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks says it has almost reached its quota for mule deer in the state’s first ever specialchronic wasting disease hunt in Carbon County. But the number of harvested whitetails lags behind.
Bob Gibson, a spokesman for FWP, says 183 mule deer have been taken. That means the special hunt for mule deer could end as early as Sunday evening if the quota of 200 is reached.
"No reason to believe we won’t be able to harvest 10 more or 17 more mule deer over the weekend" says Gibson.
Only 85 whitetail deer have been harvested so far, so that hunt will continue until February 15 or until the quota of 200 whitetails is reached.
All harvested animals are being sampled and tested for CWD, a fatal disease that affects deer, elk and moose.
Six cases were discovered in Carbon County during the regular hunting season, prompting the special hunt.
Gibson says FWP expects the first of the special hunt test results back any day now. Those results will give state officials a sense of the prevalence and distribution of the disease within Montana.
A second special CWD hunt near Chester in Northern Montana is set to begin on Saturday.
