Hunter Reports

[FishHog]

If they don't care about actual numbers, what is the point of the whole exercise. How do you assign the correct number of doe tags for a WMU. I think hunters today with the new technology could be providing accurate numbers.

This reminds me of the mess in managing the Moose herd and even cod fishery.

Your still overthinking it. Most hunters hunt the same way each year, asking the same question each year gives you the same results each year and you can see trends. If people try to outthink the questions the trends are ruined. Although with these types of questions the biologists will disregard the odd flyer that could skew the system.

As a long term average its a valuable system and easy if people just answer the questions as asked.
If you hunted, that is one day of hunting. If you saw deer then those are live deer.
Pictures are simply pictures of live deer. You did not actually see that live deer.

These types of surveys are compared to stuff like aerial surveys from time to time. That can give the a good population estimate based on a few simple questions from hunters. They don't want to change the questions as that changes the data completely and unless they spend the time and money to get new aerial surveys to compare actual population data to the supplied hunter reports its nothing but useless data.

Its nothing more than a baseline bit of info that shows trends. Again just answer the questions. Days hunted is a simple question, "Live" deer seen is a simple question.
Could there be lots of other questions? Absolutely, but until they ask them for a few decades and compare them to other studies its useless data.

[js4fn]

How many days hunted. I live on my hunting ground I have no idea how many days I was out I go out when I feel like it might be for a couple hours might be for two thirds of legal time

Why don’t they just ask how many deer see on one of your sits period

They now ask and know how many where harvested

They can easily find out how many road hits happen in a area

I know guys that didn’t see a deer on their spot but say well I seen 6 on the drive there Nono

[BPR 30-06]

Here is my December moose hunt.
5 hunters. I’ll be hunter #1
I see cow and calf shoot at Cow one shot and they both take off into the bush.
Hunter #2 tracks them and shoots Calf
We leave cow over night and hunter #3 goes in next morning and finds cow alive but can’t get out of bed and shoots it.
We drag her out and load onto my trailer. While driving to town there is a bull moose on the side of the road.
Hunters 4 and 5 are with me in the truck and hunters 2&3 have their own trucks.
We all see same bull moose on the side of the road. No tag
There are only 3 Moose total but hunter reports will have a total of 9 Live moose seen.
hunter #1 Me - i saw 3
Hunter #2 calf and bull
Hunter #3 Cow and Bull
#4 & #5 each saw a bull

How is that OK for a survey.

[FishHog]

How is that OK for a survey.

It’s not just ok it’s perfect. That is how they compare year to year.

People seem to think these surveys are way more detailed than they are. They simply show trends

Currently people can’t seem to understand a few simple questions yet you think they should make them more complex

It’s simply a trend indicator nothing more

[newbiehunter]

Here is comment from MNR that I received back :


The animal sighting information collected in hunter reports is used in conjunction with hunter effort to develop an index of population trend (i.e., animals seen/hunter day) – not a population estimate. It is intended to include only animals the hunter sees while they are actively hunting. However, as an index it is important that the hunter reports the same way each year. The index is robust to some variation in how hunters report because it includes information from all hunters within a WMU, and the trend is what’s important, rather than the absolute value.



Aligns with what has been discussed in this thread



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[punkrockerpj]

my question to myself ws how many deer could i have seen and still not killed one this year :P

[Gilroy]

Here is comment from MNR that I received back :


The animal sighting information collected in hunter reports is used in conjunction with hunter effort to develop an index of population trend (i.e., animals seen/hunter day) – not a population estimate. It is intended to include only animals the hunter sees while they are actively hunting. However, as an index it is important that the hunter reports the same way each year. The index is robust to some variation in how hunters report because it includes information from all hunters within a WMU, and the trend is what’s important, rather than the absolute value.



Aligns with what has been discussed in this thread



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So what information are they using to justify how many doe tags to give out in a WMU?

[Matt86]

So what information are they using to justify how many doe tags to give out in a WMU?

Probably the hunters success rate on does the years previous,
Or they have absolutely no clue and throw darts at a dark board, The part of wmu 50 I spend time in, they have let the wolfs wipe out the deer so no tags needed for the guys that hunt it.

[Deer Hunter]

I think MNRF moves so slowwwwwww that by the time they make the decision for a change the situation has completely gone a different direction and their solution is no longer the right one in some cases.
When decisions aren't science based anymore but made to please who talks the loudest you can be sure its not to the wildlife benefit.

[gbk]

P.. The part of wmu 50 I spend time in, they have let the wolfs wipe out the deer so no tags needed for the guys that hunt it.

Dont worry-no deer ,no wolfs(Maybe in theory)=more room for Caribou.
We have seen this already working BETTER then expected.

No caribou-no moose-lots of wolves.Hurrah