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Summary of 2011-12 Ohio Deer Seasons
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OUR MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
The goal of Ohio’s deer program is to provide a deer population that maximizes recreational opportunity including viewing, photographing, and hunting while minimizing conflicts with agriculture, motor travel, and other areas of human endeavor. This has been our goal for nearly 50 years. Farmer attitude surveys are used to establish and update population goals for most counties. We believe these goals represent a reasonable compromise between interests with opposing opinions on appropriate deer population levels. Furthermore, although these goals are based on social values, the resulting populations have never exceeded the biological carrying capacity of the habitat. Deer herd condition data collected annually and through periodic studies confirm this. Our deer management goal ensures that Ohio’s deer herd is maintained at a level that is acceptable to most, and biologically sound. Maintaining the deer population at or near goal is accomplished through harvest management.
SEASONS, PERMITS, AND BAG LIMITS
A valid hunting license (resident = $19, nonresident = $125) and either a deer permit ($24) or antlerless deer permit ($15) are required (landowners are exempt) to hunt deer in Ohio. Hunters could harvest up to 18 deer with a combination of deer and antlerless permits during the 2011-12 season (Fig. 1). Hunters were allowed only one antlered deer. Hunters had the opportunity to harvest deer during Ohio’s five seasons including: archery Sep. 24, 2011 - Feb. 5, 2012, early muzzleloader Oct. 17-22, gun Nov. 28 – Dec. 4, bonus gun Dec. 17-18, and muzzleloader Jan. 7-10, 2012. This year, youth (17 and under) season was the weekend of Nov. 19-20. All seasons were either-sex and with the exception of the early muzzleloader season, all were statewide. The early muzzleloader season was restricted to Shawnee State Forest, Wolf Creek Wildlife Area/Wildcat Hollow, and Salt Fork Wildlife Area. The $15 antlerless deer permit was available once again this year. Permits were good for an antlerless deer only and were valid statewide during the first nine weeks of the archery season. Unfilled permits could be used during deer gun season in Zone C only. Permits had to be purchased before gun season started, however. Antlerless permits could also be used in any of the five Urban Deer units and during many Division of Wildlife special and controlled hunts, including the early muzzleloader season. A maximum of 12 deer could be harvested using $15 antlerless deer permits.
HARVEST
A total of 219,748 deer was harvested this year, an 8% decrease from last season (Table 1). Figure 2 summarizes total harvest by county with the top five counties highlighted. Coshocton County once again led the state in total harvest with 7,972 deer. A harvest summary by season for the top five counties is presented in Table 2. A complete harvest summary by county and season is available in Table 3.
Hunters harvested 90,828 deer during the traditional statewide gun season, 14% fewer than last year (Table 1). Coshocton, Muskingum, Tuscarawas, Guernsey, and Harrison counties led the state in gun harvest. The Bonus Gun harvest was down 20% this year. Hunters harvested 17,172 deer during the two-day mid-December season. The top five Bonus Gun season counties were Coshocton, Tuscarawas, Muskingum, Licking, and Harrison. Archers reported harvesting 82,732 deer this year, 3% fewer than last season (Table 1). Archers accounted for 38% of the entire harvest. By comparison, just a decade ago the archery harvest accounted for just over 22% of the annual harvest. Crossbow hunters harvested 44,979 deer this year, an increase of nearly 900 deer over last season. Licking County led the state again with 1,738 deer, an increase of 3% from last year. Coshocton, Tuscarawas, Ashtabula and Guernsey rounded out the top five crossbow harvest counties. This year’s vertical bow harvest of 37,753 deer represents an 8% decrease over last season. Licking County archers led the state once again with a vertical bow harvest of 1,447. This is the fifth consecutive year that Licking County has held the top spot for vertical bow harvest. Coshocton, Tuscarawas, Muskingum, and Hamilton counties rounded out the list of top five harvest counties. There were 19,459 deer harvested during the four-day statewide muzzleloader season, January 7-10 (Table 1). Coshocton County was the top spot for muzzleloader hunters with a harvest of 729 deer, 14% more than last year. Licking, Muskingum, Guernsey, and Tuscarawas counties rounded out the top five harvest counties. Young hunters took 8,867 deer this year, 3% more than last year. Top spots for youth hunters were Tuscarawas, Guernsey, Coshocton, Muskingum, and Holmes counties.
PERMITS AND LICENSES
The Division of Wildlife issued 603,549 deer permits in license year 2011-12 (Table 4), 1% fewer than last year. However, permit sales are off 3.5% since peaking in 2009-10. Although the increase was a modest 728 permits, the $15 antlerless deer permit was the only permit to post an increase this year. In fact, antlerless deer permit sales have increased every year since they were first available in 2007-08. Antlerless deer permit sales are up 61% since 2007-08. Total deer permit sales are only up 4.5% over the same period, however. Youth deer permit sales declined for the second year in a row (Table 4). However, as noted, the youth harvest was up slightly this year.
DEER DAMAGE COMPLAINTS
Because population goals for most of Ohio’s rural counties are based on farmer tolerances, the likelihood of widespread agricultural problems should be minimal when deer populations are at goal. However, some localized damage is still likely to occur. In situations where deer need to be killed to reduce property damage, landowners/lessees may be issued Deer Damage Control Permits (DDCP) at the time the damage is occurring. These permits allow landowners/lessees and their agents to kill deer during the dates and under the conditions specified on the permit. For most agricultural problems, these permits will only be valid for the period of January 1 until the start of the archery season. Under limited crop damage circumstances permits may be extended until the start of the youth gun season. In specific circumstances permits may be valid year-round to control damage at orchards, nurseries, inside municipalities, and for safety purposes at airports. Regardless of the situation, DDCPs expire no later than December 31 of the year in which the permit is issued. Except in the case of rub damage to trees, permit holders are strongly encouraged to kill antlerless deer. Permit holders must surrender all antlers to the Division of Wildlife. In 2011, a total of 1,402 crop damage complaints was received by the Division of Wildlife (Table 5, Figure 3). This number represents just 67 complaints fewer than last year. A total of 5,741 deer was killed on damage permits this year, 2% fewer than last season.
ANTLERLESS DEER HARVEST
Last year, nearly two of every three deer harvested were antlerless deer. However, roughly one of every five of these antlerless deer were male fawns, or button bucks. While there is no intent to minimize the accomplishment of the successful hunter, from a herd management standpoint, there is little to be gained from harvesting a button buck. The good news is that we’re in a good position to reduce the button buck harvest, due in large part to the ever-increasing popularity of bow hunting. Nearly eight in 10 deer hunters now bow hunt each year. Because archers are limited to close range shots, they are in a better position than gun hunters to reduce the harvest of button bucks. Moreover, because of longer seasons and overall greater harvest opportunities, bow hunters can afford to be more selective without compromising opportunity. Therefore, in an effort to highlight the importance of the button buck harvest from a population management standpoint, beginning last year we replaced “antlerless” with “doe” and “button buck” in both our county and statewide harvest summaries. This year, there were 25,836 button bucks harvested (Table 1). Statewide, button bucks accounted for 18% of the entire antlerless harvest. As a group, archers harvested only slightly fewer buttons, with just over 17% of their antlerless harvest composed of male fawns. Figure 4 contains a summary of the top and bottom 10 counties for button buck harvest by archers. Values represent the proportion of the antlerless harvest composed of buttons. Monroe County led the state with just under 11% of the antlerless harvest composed of button bucks. On the other hand, nearly one in three antlerless deer taken by archers in Henry County was a button buck. In part, the difference between the rather wide gap between the top and bottom counties may be due to zone bag limits. With two exceptions, all top 10 counties are Zone C counties. Conversely, all of the bottom 10 counties were in Zone B. The additional harvest opportunities in Zone C may allow archers to be more discriminating there. Thus, to get a better sense for how archers are doing relative to gun hunters, a comparison of the button buck harvest proportion of archers with the same value for all seasons combined was made and then the counties were ranked according to the difference between these two estimates. Viewed in this manner, bowhunters in Muskingum County led the state last year with the widest gap between their button buck harvest and the county as a whole. As a group, Muskingum County hunters harvested 19 buttons for every 100 antlerless deer. Archers on the other hand, took just over 15 buttons per 100 antlerless deer in the bag. The top and bottom 10 counties are compared in Figure 5. Although the differences are small, among the bottom 10 counties, the proportion of buttons in the archery harvest was actually higher than that for the county as a whole.
Undoubtedly, some button bucks were mistakenly harvested for does. Aside from all of the other social and biological benefits of an early harvest, harvesting early in the season will help to minimize harvest errors because of the relatively large size difference between does and their fawns. However, as the season progresses, button bucks can easily be mistaken for young does. In these situations, hunters must rely on differences in physical appearances such as head shape and even behavioral differences (male fawns tend to be the lead deer in family groups) to distinguish button bucks from does. It is best to avoid taking lone antlerless deer. Male fawns tend to be more “adventuresome” than does, often times wandering off on their own. Additionally, a hunter lacks any frame of reference for gauging size with a lone deer. The best solution for hunters is to wait for a group and, if possible, take the largest antlerless deer in the group.
The Division of Wildlife remains committed to providing quality deer now and into the future. To accomplish this, we must harvest an adequate number of does each year to maintain the herd at a level that the habitat is capable of supporting in good to excellent condition. Through a combination of liberal bag limits, reduced cost antlerless deer permits, and other programmatic changes, including education on the importance of an adequate doe harvest, we have been successful in most regions of the state. Work remains, however. Managing the button buck harvest presents another opportunity to increase the doe harvest with little or no impact at all on opportunity. As a hunter, you are in a position to help, especially if you are an archer. By reducing the proportion of button bucks in the harvest, you’re helping to ensure that Ohio’s deer program remains a model for the rest of the country.
AUTOMATED LICENSE SALES AND GAME CHECK SYSTEM
Beginning with the 2011-12 spring turkey season, licensed hunters were no longer required to present their turkey or deer at a check station for permanent tagging. Instead, both deer and turkey could be checked on-line, over the phone, or at any license vendor. In the case of the latter, the hunter was not required to present the game, simply the standard harvest information along with proper identification. Expectations were high, and for the most part, all were met or exceeded. As expected, a quarter of a million game check transactions revealed a few issues that no amount of simulations could. Many of these issues will be addressed in 2012-13 and others thereafter. Aside from the conveniences the automated license and game check system afforded our hunters and the time savings it created for DOW staff, our new license and game check system created opportunities to look at data in a manner that previously been impossible or very difficult at best. These new opportunities will allow us to offer products and licenses and permit packages that best suit our customer’s needs. A survey of hunters that had an opportunity to test the new game check system before it went live in 2011 revealed that the majority of hunters believed that the new system would allow us to do a more effective job managing Ohio’s deer herd, for two primary reasons. First, they recognized that the time spent collecting forms and distributing check station materials could be better spent managing game populations. Second, they felt that because of the convenience that it offered hunters, that we would get more and better data in a timelier manner. Accurate license and permit data notwithstanding, our new game check system has shed light on a number of issues related to the deer harvest data including the proportion of deer taken on public land, and by landowners and nonresident hunters. These data are summarized in Figure 6. With nearly 80,000 acres of public land between the Wayne National Forest, Crown City Wildlife Area, and the Dean State Forest, Lawrence County held the top spot for public land deer harvest in the 2011-12 deer season. One third of the deer taken in Lawrence County were harvested on public land. This compares to 9% for the state as a whole. The remaining top five counties averaged 22% of the deer harvest taken on public land. Hamilton County has been conducting a very successful deer management program in a number of their parks and is likely the reason this “outlier” made the top five list. In addition to the top county for public land harvest, Lawrence County was a very productive place for nonresident hunters as well. This is not unexpected as public hunting lands are popular destinations for nonresident hunters. Nonresidents accounted for 5% of the county harvest on average. However, in Lawrence County, 16% of the deer harvest left the state. Athens County held the number two spot, while Pike, Morgan, and Adams counties tied for 3rd place at 14% each. Landowners are not required to purchase a hunting license or deer or turkey permits to hunt on their property. However, by law, successful landowners must complete the game check process. Last year, landowners accounted for 22% of the reported harvest. Landowners would include both absentee as well as individuals residing on the property. Thus, factors such as amount of undeveloped land, proportion of county residents that hunt, and deer numbers are likely to affect the distribution of landowner harvest in the state. In 2011-12, landowners accounted for nearly half of the reported harvest from Meigs County. Washington, Monroe, Gallia, and Scioto counties rounded out the top five and ranged from 39% to 36% of the total reported harvest.
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Summary of Previous Ohio Deer Seasons
(PDF)
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