Berry College starts genetic study of its deer population

The harvest across mid-Coosa Valley was up slightly this year.

The 2017-2018 deer season is history for hunters, but the work is just beginning for students at Berry College. George Gallagher, professor of biology at Berry College, said students have started a new deer DNA research project using tissue samples taken from deer harvested on the Berry College Wildlife Management Area this season.

“We’re trying to create some genetic markers that we hope will help us, over time, to look at our deer versus deer in other regions and be able to identify primary differences in them,” Gallagher said.

He said hunters were very cooperative and thought the project was pretty exciting.

“We can get extreme detail on each animal,” Gallagher said.

Chuck Waters, the regional supervisor for t he DNR Game Management Division in Armuchee, said it will be interesting to see what data the study produces because deer from Berry and Georgia’s barrier islands, Sapelo and Ossabaw in particular, were captured decades ago and used to help restock populations in other areas of the state.

“Berry had a significant deer population back when there weren’t many deer in Georgia,” Waters said.

Hunters generally experienced a little more success during the recently completed 20172018 deer season than during t he previous year. Harvests were up in Floyd, Bartow, Gordon, Walker and Polk counties, but down slightly in Chattooga County.

Data from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources shows that 1,914 deer were taken in Floyd County, up 1.6 percent from the 1,883 that were harvested during the 2016-2017 season. Bartow County registered the highest percentage increase in the six-county region, up 13.4 percent to 1,623 deer during the just concluded season.

Charlie Killmaster, the DNR state deer biologist, said that statewide the harvest was nearly identical from the 2016-2017 season to the 2017-2018 season.

“Within the last three years we hit a record number of actively participating licensed deer hunters. We went up to over 350,000 active deer hunters, which is a little bit higher than we’ve ever seen before,” Killmaster said.

“The good harvest numbers probably help hunter numbers and they’re the people who pay the bills for all the critters,” Waters said.

Data taken from hunts this year indicates the quality of the deer herd was probably a little better this year than in years gone by.

“When antler characteristics by age class go up that’s an indication of good health,” Waters said. “That helps feed interest too, so it’s a win-win.”

Gallagher said it’s important for the hunters to have a certain level of success because nature operates at a balance and the number of natural predators for deer is not what it used to be.

“The human becomes an important aspect in controlling the population,” Gallagher said.