If anything, spikes should be protected, as they were “back in the day.” Spike seasons – whether for whitetail, mule deer or elk – are unwarranted.The only reason to cull either sex is to remove a mouth to feed.Killing young females does the most damage to sustainable population.

Severe culling severely hurts the herd.In addition to removing the best breeders, shooting young bucks skews buck demographics, eventually reducing the number of mature bucks relative to the total herd.Antlers are more influenced by nutrition than genes.Bucks that father the biggest trophies do not have the biggest antlers.Some of the biggest deer captured had been identified as spikes or management bucks earlier in the study. Spikes and small-antlered deer are not genetically inferior: They are often younger than they look, late bloomers, nutritionally challenged, or all three.Here are some findings from the landmark studies, and conclusions drawn from the findings: Each time the deer were caught, their weight, age, and antler score were also collected.īecause of the enormous costs and resources necessary to conduct research at this scale, there is no comparable study in the history of deer management. Their DNA was analyzed to identify their parentage. It turns out that these actions were scientifically unsound and bad for deer.Īs described in the article below, the Comanche (Farias) Ranch near Eagle Pass Texas has conducted a 13-year study in which 15,000 wild deer were captured. By now it is likely that millions of such male deer (whitetail, mule deer, and elk) have been killed in the name of culling. The practice is also well-established in elk management, which is precisely why every Western state has a special spike elk season. Small-antlered “management” bucks and spike bucks are the usual targets. Since the early 1970s, belief in the effectiveness of culling has become so widely-held it is now considered common “knowledge.” For decades now, state agencies, universities and wildlife managers have urged culling of so-called “inferior” bucks from herds in order to improve genetics and produce bigger trophies.

Spike deer development