Scarcity of Deer ???

[jaycee]

Where are you located?

There is still around 8000 vehicle-deer collisions in Ontario every year, those are the ones that are reported.

There are not as many but that is because the deer population is down from its high.

They had 5 extra tags in Eastern Ontario due to farmers complaints for deer eating all their crops. Near Lanark they actually had a Fathers Day hunt to try to reduce the numbers, is it better to have all the farmers crops eaten or to have the deer population at the proper carrying capacity.

We are in the area of Hamilton,Guelph, Kitchener, Brantford, a once very deer rich area, an area where I would see quite a few road kills during the rut on my way too and from work.
We moved out here in 1977, and during the late 70's through the 80's and 90's used to see deer constantly, but not any more.

[DanO]

I didn't really find the time to hunt deer seriously until about 2005. I couldn't believe the deer numbers in the FErgus/Elora area. I've always hunted just not deer. What contributed to the abundance of deer 15 years ago? Soft winters, lack of tags ...?

[DanO]

Good article on the importance of coyote control during April and May when fawns are being born.

http://www.outdoorlife.com/articles/...yote-save-fawn

[MikePal]

Good article on the importance of coyote control during April and May when fawns are being born.

http://www.outdoorlife.com/articles/...yote-save-fawn

Unfortunately, as that article states, it has little overall effect:

Coyote removal doesn’t make much of a difference either. A three-year study in South Carolina found that coyote control efforts did boost whitetail fawn survival, but only slightly. Despite intense trapping pressure—coyotes were reduced by 78 percent each year, and at a rate of about four per square mile—their numbers rebounded to pre-trapping levels within just nine months. “About a third of the coyotes in our study areas are transient,” says University of Georgia professor Dr. Karl Miller. “If you shoot a resident coyote, a transient moves in and sets up his own territory pretty quickly.”

That’s not to say that shooting a coyote won’t save a few fawns. Of more importance is to shoot them at the right time of the year—where legal. Miller was involved in various studies that showed higher fawn survival rates in some study areas when management efforts were conducted just prior to the fawning season. However, coyote trapping didn’t help on other sites.

[delmer]

Well, according to Parks Canada, a lack of predators has caused an over abundance of deer. They are doing a cull in Point Pelee Park. So it would follow that the inverse could be true in some situations - a lack of deer caused by an over abundance of predators.

"They say the population has boomed due to a lack of natural predators such as wolves, bears and cougars, an abundance of leaf canopy and mild winters."

http://www.cp24.com/news/deer-cull-to-begin-in-point-pelee-national-park-on-friday-1.3237230

[jaycee]

I picked this info from another forum;
It seems that parts of the U.S. are also complaining about the scarcity of deer.

ILLINOISE, Pike county, once noted for high populations of big deer , now the lack of.
States of Iowa, New Jersey and Wisconsin also complaining about the lack of deer.
State of Michigan, surprisingly, many hunt clubs there have shut down the hunting this past season.

Also both Boone and Crockett, and Pope and Young have stated that in the last few years there have been fewer and fewer large [record book] deer entered into their books, and they are taking a very serious look into this problem.

[Ahuntr300]

Just throwing this out there - could there be some sort of unknown deer disease responsible or contributing to the scarcity?

[jaycee]

Well, according to Parks Canada, a lack of predators has caused an over abundance of deer. They are doing a cull in Point Pelee Park. So it would follow that the inverse could be true in some situations - a lack of deer caused by an over abundance of predators.

"They say the population has boomed due to a lack of natural predators such as wolves, bears and cougars, an abundance of leaf canopy and mild winters."

http://www.cp24.com/news/deer-cull-to-begin-in-point-pelee-national-park-on-friday-1.3237230

Point Pelee Provincial Park , is relatively small and cannot support a lot of deer.

There has been a "cull hunt " going on there for several years, and has always caused bad feelings from the local hunters as they cannot participate.
The cull is carried out by some Park Officials, and mainly Native hunters from the area reserve, local hunters cannot even apply.

The same applies to Rondeau and Long Point Provincial Parks, when the deer get beyond the carrying capacity of these parks, they have a "cull hunt", Native hunters only.

[MikePal]

ILLINOISE, Pike county, once noted for high populations of big deer , now the lack of.
States of Iowa, New Jersey and Wisconsin also complaining about the lack of deer.

Just throwing this out there - could there be some sort of unknown deer disease responsible or contributing to the scarcity?

some reasons:

Illinois is hardly alone in the declining deer harvests across the Midwest over the past few years. Deer numbers have been down in several Midwest states, including Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and both Dakotas. In some regions, winter mortality reduced deer numbers. In other cases, epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) outbreaks across the Heartland continue to affect deer herds in localized locations.

You have to read more into it than just to say they are 'scarce' , read the article below and get some insight as to why the 'harvest' numbers are down in those states....like this thread has pointed out...lots of reasons for decline, but like they found, the deer populations aren't in trouble and are where, for the most part they should be.

Since 1957, when the modern firearm deer-hunting season first opened, the Illinois deer herd progressively grew through the late 1990s to the point that deer exceeded the carrying capacity of the landscape. To reach management objectives, the IDNR began aggressively managing the deer herd by allocating more hunting opportunities and used hunters as a management tool, with a goal of thinning the deer herd.


The all-time high deer harvest in Illinois took place during the 2005-06 season when 201,209 deer were killed. Since that time, the annual deer harvest has declined as deer-management objectives have been reached. This past season, 20 counties were removed from the late season antlerless deer season.


Some counties are shifting from herd reduction to strategies that maintain or increase deer numbers.
During the 2015 late anterless deer season, 35 counties participated, down from 55 counties the year prior. Counties that are at or below individual population goals for two consecutive years may be removed.
According to the preliminary harvest data from the 2014-15 deer seasons in Illinois, hunting success this past season was very similar to the season prior, but on an overall downward trend. However, hunter success this past season was nearly 25 percent below the 2012 harvest numbers.


What goes unsaid however is that there are still large numbers of whitetail deer in the state, and many hunters were successful this past season. In fact, 51,830 deer were harvested over a three-day span during the first Illinois gun season this past fall. Regardless of whether deer numbers stabilize or even increase from the past few years, Illinois hunters will be able to find deer with a little bit of effort.

[COLOR=#000000]
Read more: http://www.gameandfishmag.com/foreca...#ixzz4VfRfMiLH

[MikePal]

Point Pelee Provincial Park , is relatively small and cannot support a lot of deer.

There has been a "cull hunt " going on there for several years, and has always caused bad feelings from the local hunters as they cannot participate.
The cull is carried out by some Park Officials, and mainly Native hunters from the area reserve, local hunters cannot even apply.

The same applies to Rondeau and Long Point Provincial Parks, when the deer get beyond the carrying capacity of these parks, they have a "cull hunt", Native hunters only.

Sustenance hunting on First Nation Treaty Land...why would anyone have cause for 'hard feelings' ?