In large part, southeast Colorado pronghorn herds seem to have survived the killer blizzard that pounded the region.
A Wednesday aerial survey of the region east and west of Lamar revealed “a fair number of animals,” in the words of principal region biologist Bob Davies.
Davies emphasized the search covered a limited amount of the broad territory affected by the region’s worst storm since 1957.
“We didn’t see anything stranded or in apparent distress. But you can only see so much of the country,” Davies said.
Most pronghorn, he said, seemed to be moving toward ridges where snow was less deep.
“We’ll have some losses. You can’t have a weather event like that without some losses,” Davies said. “A lot depends on the weather. If it warms and the snow breaks, we’ll be OK.”
The situation involving upland birds is much more bleak. Davies projects that once-thriving quail populations, both scaled and bobwhite, generally were decimated across most of their range.
Pheasants, more hardy and mobile, fared considerably better.
“We’ve heard reports of pheasants up and about, but people have more important things to worry about than that,” Davies said.
Game birds that survived the blizzards are susceptible to predation from raptors, particularly great horned owls. Pheasant and quail wandering atop a solid white landscape in search of food become easy targets.
The storm did offer two benefits to wildlife. The moisture virtually assures a bumper wheat crop, always a boost to spring pheasant propagation.
Also, runoff from the snow will add precious water to drought- plagued reservoirs where fish populations had become threatened.
