Photo by Mark Werner

No one will argue that Pennsylvania hunters will have fewer deer available this year. But hunters who are more flexible and study the situation and go where deer are more abundant might be in for some pleasant surprises.

The estimated deer harvest was down about 12 percent last year in Pennsylvania compared to the previous year. These harvest figures do not include deer taken with Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) tags.

"The problem is we haven't received 100 percent of the reports from the DMAPs," said Jerry Feaser, Pennsylvania Game Commission press secretary.

Hunters habitually complain about the accuracy of deer harvest figures. But these complaints are typically directed toward the Game Commission when the actual blame rests squarely on the shoulders of hunters.

Estimates of the actual deer harvests are made by comparing the deer that are taken to meat processors with the harvest report cards that are received by the Game Commission. Approval of on-line deer harvest reporting might improve the regular harvest reporting rate somewhat. It has already been used for DMAP.

Excluding the DMAP numbers, last year, Pennsylvania hunters harvested 409,320 deer. Despite the uproar from hunters, that was the sixth-largest harvest since 1986, when the Game Commission began estimating harvests. It consisted of 124,410 antlered deer (a 13 percent decline) and 284,910 antlerless deer, a 12 percent decline.

Another decline in the deer harvest should be expected this year due to significant reductions in antlerless license allocations. Allocations in the urban areas (wildlife management units 2B, 5C and 5D) will remain the same as last year, as will WMUs 2A and 4E, but in the rest of the state there has been an average 18 percent reduction.

Many hunters have urged the Game Commission to reduce the antlerless deer season or return to the old system of a short antlerless deer season following the regular bucks-only season as a means of reducing antlerless harvests. This is not likely to happen.

"We didn't know what was going to happen as a consequence of the short season," Ross explained.

Harvests under the short season were too unpredictable because of highly variable weather conditions. No snow or too much snow often reduced harvests. The two-week concurrent season makes harvest estimations much more reliable.

There is another positive side to the concurrent season, according to Dr. Christopher Rosenberry, a PGC Deer Management Section supervisor. Results of a recent survey about hunters' attitudes indicated that lack of time was the second most important reason why hunters are giving up hunting. The top reasons are age and health-related issues.

"We can't do anything about hunters' ages and health, but we can provide them more time to hunt, more time to use the licenses they have purchased, as a means of preserving, protecting and promoting our state's hunting heritage," Rosenberry said.

One of the great deer debates has been about population estimates. Some satisfaction on questions over accuracy of deer population estimates was derived through aerial surveys that began last February using a method called forward looking infrared (FLIR).

The surveys were conducted by Vision Air Research Inc., which is based in Boise, Idaho, and funded at a cost of $180,000 by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Airplanes outfitted with the latest aerial infrared sensor technology, which records heat-generated images, flew out of State College. The House Game and Fisheries Committee has closely watched progress of the survey.

Areas chosen for survey were selected based on locations hunters complained were devoid of deer and locations that were known to have been over-browsed. Goals of the program included evaluating the success of DMAP, verifying local deer density reports, linking deer population numbers to habitat conditions on a widespread scale and investigating whether or not infrared was a valuable tool for conducting similar large-scale studies.