Deer-harvest numbers expected to increase
It has been five years since hunters last tagged more than 200,000 deer in Ohio, but those heady numbers could be within reach during the 2017-18 season that begins Saturday, the opening day of archery season.
“The numbers would suggest we’ll see an increased harvest this year,” said Mike Tonkovich, deer specialist with the Ohio Division of Wildlife.
Hunters tagged 182,169 whitetails last season, which included gun hunts in December and a muzzleloader hunt in January. That represented a nominal downturn from the 188,239 reported taken the year before.
Those two seasons showed increases of at least 6,300 whitetails from 2014-15, a recordlow year of 175,801 that came six years after a record 252,017 were tagged in 2008-09, reflecting a high deer population favored by hunters and rued by farmers suffering losses from crop damage.
In response to public criticism about deer numbers from the Ohio Farm Bureau, Wildlife Division officials a few years ago embarked on what turned out to be a successful plan, based on liberal hunting regulations, to thin the deer herd in areas where the population was deemed too dense.
“We’re never going to set harvest records again, I hope,” Tonkovich said.
Farmers and orchard growers aren’t the only beneficiaries of a reduced deer population. Studies indicate crowding has led to generally smaller deer and diminished antler size, which is why population targets take into account herd health.
Many hunters, particularly those from out of state, prefer the larger deer and antlers for which Ohio is known.
Whitetail health is a concern heading into the season, though it’s disease, not nutrition, that has led to deer deaths in eastern and southeastern counties. Epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD, is confirmed or suspected in the deaths of deer in about a quarter of Ohio’s counties, Tonkovich said.
EHD generally strikes hardest in drought years when standing pools of stagnant water breed the midges that carry the malady. The cause of the outbreak in an otherwise rainy year might be linked to stagnant pools left behind by overflowing streams.
At any rate, the disease, which might infect cattle but not people or their pets, dies with midges killed by fall frosts.
The EHD outbreak probably won’t impact the statewide kill, but it could affect hunters in some hard-hit locales, particularly in counties bordering Pennsylvania and West Virginia, Tonkovich said.
More likely to drive the state’s deer totals will be the addition of 21 threedeer counties that were two-deer counties a year ago.
The opportunity to kill three deer instead of two tends to make hunters less selective in the use of their first permit, thus increasing the likelihood of taking two deer, Tonkovich said. Hunters with only two chances sometimes hold off using the second permit with the hope of a shot at a trophy.
Three-deer counties in central Ohio include Fairfield, which last year had a two-deer limit, Licking and Union. Pickaway and Madison are still twodeer counties. Antlerless permits may not be used in Fairfield, Licking, Union, Pickaway or Madison counties.
Franklin and Delaware counties are designated as four-deer counties in which one deer may be tagged with an antlerless permit.
The statewide season limit remains six deer, only one of which may be a buck. A hunter may not exceed a county limit.
The archery season extends through Feb. 4. The gun season runs Nov. 27 through Dec. 3 and Dec. 16-17. The muzzleloader hunt runs Jan. 6-9. The youth gun season is set for Nov. 18-19.
Hunting hours are 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset.