Monitoring wildlife numbers in eastern Santa Cruz County and surrounding areas is an important part of the job for Britt Oleson, the local Wildlife Manager for the Arizona Game and Fish Dept. (AZGFD).
This past January, Oleson spent seven days flying over sections of game management units 35A and 35B, which are bordered by Mexico to the south, the San Pedro River to the east, and on the west and north by SR82, counting deer and javelina. She has been conducting these surveys for AZGFD for since 2015.
The January count showed a healthy population of deer, both white tail (Coues) deer and mule deer.
“The white tails are doing fine. Mule deer numbers are not back to where they were 30 years ago,” Oleson said. “We’ve been doing some habitat work that’s benefiting them.” AZGFD has been working with the Forest Service for the past eight years doing brush thinning and habitat restoration.
Mule deer are counted, but there are so few that generally no tags for rifle, except youth or junior tags, are issued. Muzzleloader and archery tags are available for mule deer. Does of any species are always protected from hunting in Arizona.
Oleson saw the exact same number of javelina as two years ago, but the herds were smaller, due to herds breaking up for more availability to food, not necessarily lower numbers.
The three-year average for javelina is down, according to Oleson. “We did see a big drop in javelina numbers over the past several years,” she said. “They’re having a hard time coming back with the drought.”
Species such as pronghorn, turkey and quail are surveyed with other techniques and at different times of the year.
Pronghorn are surveyed by fixed wing aircraft in the summer months after their fawns are born. With a small population of approximately 300 pronghorns, few tags are allowed. Generally, five for south of SR82 and five or six for the herd north of SR82 are issued.
Turkey surveys are done in February during breeding season when the tom turkeys or “gobblers” can be heard gobbling.
Mearn’s quail populations are dependent on the summer rains (as opposed to scaled and Gambel’s quail, who depend on good winter rains). The dry summer of 2023 resulted in low reproduction rates. If the rains are good this summer, then the reproduction rates will increase for the fall hunting season. Generally, hunting for Mearns’ quail is self-limiting as quail are hard to find and many hunters, especially Arizona hunters, will ethically limit their hunting even if higher bag limits are allowed.
Bears and mountain lion populations are also monitored by AZGFD.
“We keep an eye on our bears and lions through our harvest check-in process,” Oleson said. “We put hands on every single bear and lion taken in the state. Our bear population is really healthy now. We have bears surviving into old age, so we know we are hunting them conservatively. The lion population is doing great, too. There are a lot of lions in the landscape, a healthy number.”
AZGFD also monitors fish populations in area lakes. An electrical charge in the water stuns fish, which are scooped up and placed in a live well on the boat to be counted.
“Early May, we’ll be doing our first shocking for the year,” Oleson said. “Each lake we do twice per year, one in the spring and one in the fall.”
Wildlife surveys are done to provide statistics for healthy population management and sustainable harvest.
“We don’t do population estimates,” Oleson explained. “There’s no way we could count everything that’s out there. We are looking for changes over time and population matrixes, buck to doe ratios, doe to fawns, etc. For example, a healthy deer population will have 40 to 50 fawns per 100 does. For javelina, we look at herd size, and the number of adults per herd.”
Hunting limits are set for the year by a formula projecting percentage of mortality before the next hunting season. Changes over three years’ averages are used to formulate the numbers.
Oleson describes the process as a recipe book: fly, observe, check how the numbers fit into the guide, and recommend. This formula has been successful for many decades.
After the count, Oleson makes her recommendation to a state biologist in Phoenix and the final recommendation is sent to the Arizona State Game and Fish Commission.
“It is a good system,” Oleson said.
Oleson can be contacted at 480-216-4488 or by email at boleson@azgfd.gov.