Sara Schreiber, technical forensic director of the toxicology lab at the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner, said the general demographic data of the deaths in recent days shows that it’s more men than women, more white than Black, and that the victims, on average, are older than usual. Lipski said a “huge amount” of the deaths have occurred in the City of Milwaukee, specifically the city’s South Side, and also in South Milwaukee and West Allis.īeyond the increase in deaths, the demographics of the victims in recent days has also shifted from the mean. “That tells us these deaths are just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. Ben Weston, chief health policy director for Milwaukee County, said the emergency medical services system has also experienced “increased activity” with non-fatal overdoses being brought to emergency departments. But since Saturday, officials have seen the average number of overdose deaths go from one every 16 hours to one every four hours. Like the rest of the U.S., metro Milwaukee has been struggling against the opioid epidemic and increasing numbers of deaths due to drugs like Fentanyl. Long story short? If you want to shoot a spike to fill your tag and collect some prime venison, by all means do that, be happy, and wear a smile.“They’re putting it in everything, it’s like the Red Hot sauce,” said Milwaukee Fire Department Chief Aaron Lipski. Culling him before his time is akin to the very premise of this blog post: “Once a spike always a spike.” Remember, the mother is often responsible for 60% or more of that little buck’s DNA. I’ve been to so many locales over the years that declare war on spike bucks in efforts to “weed them out” of the gene pool. Long story short, follow-up research during recent years has shown that it’s futile to try to manage against spikes by implementing “green light” shooting missions. Disclaimer: Some biologists in Texas will argue otherwise, and there is some evidence to show that genetics can play a role in spike development in Southern deer, but it doesn’t override the first two factors. Genetics would be a distant third on this list. Hence the reason why so many Northern states have higher percentages of spike bucks in the herd as yearlings.ĭon’t despair, they catch up! More on that later. Overwinter habitat is critical, especially in Northern areas. It’s important to note that nutrition goes way beyond our good-intentioned efforts of providing supplemental feed through protein (where legal) and food plots. Without quality nutrition, especially in the late winter months, antler growth is going to suffer for those late-borns and, hence, a higher probability for spike antlers. A late-born fawn that does not have unlimited, high-value nutrition is further behind the 8-ball, so to speak. ( Heffelfinger, DDH) The Nutrition FactorĪll three of these factors go hand-in-hand, but nutrition is huge when combined with age. (Incidentally there was a single 3-1/2-year-old that was recorded to have spikes.) Some of these older Wisconsin deer recorded to have unbranched antlers on each side might actually have had broken antlers rather than natural spikes. In the farmland where deer have access to better nutrition, only 12 of 1,826 2 1/2-year-old deer (.6%) were spikes. He tallied spikes in a subset of Wisconsin data and found 29 of 1,588 deer aged 2-1/2 years old (1.8%) were spikes in forested northern Wisconsin. Anything else (antlers) is relatively unimportant when the skeleton has to grow.Īccording to a scientific study conducted by Keith McCaffery, Wisconsin DNR deer researcher and manager for more than 30 years, there are very few animals older than yearlings with spikes. Late-borns invariably have to put their energy into body growth. By the time hunting season rolls around, they’ll be pushing 18 months of age and will be sporting their first set of antlers. Key term there is, “first.” By and large, spikes are the result of late-born fawns from the previous season that are entering their first growing season. Age, or lack thereof, is the key reason why a whitetail buck will grow spikes as its first set of antlers.
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