Antlerless deer are the key to managing population numbers.
QUESTION: My state recently announced that they are giving out a lot more doe tags this year than they did last year. I have not harvested a deer in three years and am hoping that getting a doe tag will make it easier. However, I’m also concerned that if hunters harvest too many does, it will be even more difficult to be successful in future years. Which do you think will be the case?
ANSWER: Both. Because antlerless deer (including buck fawns) are more visible and usually more numerous than antlered bucks (although not to the extent some hunters believe) your odds of successfully getting a deer are probably higher. How much higher will depend on several things including overall deer densities, age and sex ratios and hunting pressure, to name a few. Deer densities where I live are low, and success rates for any-deer permit holders are about 25-30%. In areas with high deer densities it can approach 100%.
Removing more does will certainly have an effect immediately and in the future since does represent the reproductive potential of the population. However, state wildlife agencies typically have objective population levels they would like to achieve, and if they are issuing more permits it is likely that the deer population is above that target level and needs to be reduced.
It’s important to remember these levels are usually not based on biological carrying capacity (what the habitat can support). More often they are based on cultural carrying capacity (what the human population will tolerate).
Issues like car-deer collisions, crop depredation and the prevalence of tick-borne illnesses often call for lower deer populations than hunters would prefer and can comfortably live on the landscape without excessive stress to the deer or their habitat.
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