Helicopter wranglers ‘hunt’ deer with nets from the sky

In order to learn more about the lives and migratory patterns of deer, a unique group of helicopter wranglers literally bag deer from the sky. This ‘mule deer rodeo’ is done to draw samples at random from a herd to study the overall health of a given population. Helicopters are used to locate, trap, and extract deer from the wild. After they are caught in a net, the deer are ‘hog tied’ and blindfolded before being moved to a safety harness for air extraction to the science base nearby in Wyoming’s Red Desert. After blood and fecal samples are drawn for study by wildlife biologists, the deer are returned to the wild tagged but otherwise unharmed.