How did CWD pop up within the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico?
Good question. There are no game ranches in the area, and apparently no deer were ever stocked here. So how did a CWD-positive mule deer get behind the fences of the missile range? No one seems to have a clue. The nearest wild CWD animal was 300 miles away. Or was it? Last fall several deer shot just outside the missile range fence tested positive for CWD. Other deer in the area are now being tested. But the question remains, how did this little pocket of deer get CWD in the first place? Early reports from Colorado and Wisconsin show that more bucks than does test positive for CWD. Why? I asked Val Geist, noted deer behaviorist from Calgary, why this would be. His answer was that bucks taste the urine of does in heat. Val believes that bucks thus become carriers. He also believes that does play a bigger role in the transmission of CWD. Knowing all the above, what should I, as a hunter, do? First, wear rubber gloves when handling deer and elk, and bone out all meat. These precautions ma
