Members of the Straits Area Sportsmen’s Club are asking hunters who harvest or observe deer with purple ear tags to report to a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) field office for data gathering purposes.

DNR biologists and the club have been working together since 1988 tracking Upper Peninsular deer movements.

Between the years of 1998 and 2001, members of the Straits Area Sportsmen’s club have tagged more than 100 deer in and around Mackinac County, said Louis Colegrove, president of the club.

So far, 26 deer with purple ear tags have been reported, Mr. Colegrove said. Some of them have been reported as far away as Brimley, 24 miles north from their trapping site in the River Bend and Trout Lake areas.

The Sportsmen’s club and the DNR use this information to assess the deer population in areas where the herd was found in the winter and to discover where the animals disperse to in the spring, summer, and fall. Hunters can contact Mr. Colegrove at 643-8875.