Evaluating a web-based tool for ungulate harvest management. Kenyon, Marc^*,1, Knight, James¹, Keddington, Linda ², ¹ Extension Wildlife Program, Bozeman, MT² Department of Animal and Range Sciences, Bozeman, MT

ABSTRACT- Hunting the female segment of a wild ungulate population is an effective wildlife management tool to control overpopulation. Most hunters prefer to harvest males however, leading to further escalation of overpopulation. Landowners attempting to manage wild ungulate overpopulation have expressed difficulty finding hunters who wish to harvest female deer, antelope and elk. Likewise, some hunters willing to harvest female ungulates have difficulty locating private landowners seeking hunters. The Montana State University Wildlife Extension Program created the DoeCowHunt website to help remedy this situation (www.DoeCowHunt.montana.edu). This website is a tool to facilitate contact between landowners and hunters for the purpose of harvesting doe deer and antelope and cow elk. The website has been available for the Montana 2003-2004 big-game hunting season, with 26,168 visits and 1,369 registered users. The purpose of this research project is to evaluate the effectiveness of this website at providing an avenue for contact between landowners and hunters and make any necessary improvements to the website identified from electronic mail questionnaires sent to the registered users of the website. Preliminary findings indicate low landowner participation (11 registered landowners) and difficulty in the registration process. The result of this study should provide a tool land managers can use to increase wild ungulate harvest, thereby lessening their impact on private lands.

KEY WORDS: wild ungulate management, depredation reduction, website, hunting