Ohio’s
deer hunters didn’t kill 188,00 animals this past combined seasons
nor even 187,000 whitetails as was possible but they still bested
what they did during the 2016-2017 all-seasons’ tally.
When
the final arrow was launched and the final figures tabulated, Ohio’s
archers, firearms and muzzle-loaders shot a total of 186,247
white-tailed deer for the 2017-2018 season. That figure is 4,078 more
animals than were killed during the 2016-2017 deer-hunting period
which saw 182,169 animals being taken, or harvested in the vernacular
of biologists with the Ohio Division of Wildlife.
For
comparison, the 186,247 figure falls into forth place in total kill
over the past six deer-hunting seasons. The total deer kills for
these seasons were: 2012-2013 – 218,91 animals; 2013-2014 –
191,503 animals; 2014-2015 – 175,801 animals; 2015-2016 -188,335
animals; and 2016-2017 – 182,169 animals.
Yet
while the total overall deer kill was up over its 2016-2017
all-implements counterpart, that is not true for the harvest
associated with archery tackle. Total deer kill figures for archery
equipment were down for both antlered and antlerless deer when
stacked up against their 2016-2017 numbers. The total
archery-associated take for antlered deer for the just-concluded
2017-2018 season was 38,334 animals while the comparable 2016-2017
number was 40,705 antlered animals.
For
antlerless deer the numbers were 41,945 animals and 42,616 animals,
respectively.
“Based
on a three-year average, this year’s total archery deer harvest was
off by only three percent, and it’s important to remember that
archers still account for almost 43 percent of the entire deer
harvest total,” said Clint McCoy, the Wildlife Division’s chief
deer management researcher-biologist. “In the world of biologists
that three-percent figure is peanuts.”
The
totals do show, however, that 63 of Ohio’s 88 counties saw gains
this past season verses their 2016-2017 total deer kill status. Among
the counties with significant increases were (in alphabetical order):
Carroll – plus 349 animals; Coschocton – plus 630 animals;
Guernsey County – plus 188 animals; Morgan County – plus 286
animals; Preble Couty – plus 122 animals; and Tuscarawas County –
plus 683 animals.
“Most
hunters want to see more deer and we are moving in that direction but
we want to increase the numbers gradually,” McCoy said as well.
Some
counties did see rather eyebrow-raising declines, though, and none
more so than Jefferson County where the decline in the deer kill was
897 animals. Earlier in the hunting season when Jefferson County’s
to-date numbers were coming it was suspected that the entire county’s
deer herd likely was impacted by epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD),
McCoy said.
“At
first blush the most obvious thing about this concluded season’s
deer harvest was how much it was off in Jefferson County,” McCoy
said. “But there were other counties, too.”
And
other counties also recorded deer kill declines for whatever reason.
This year’s deer harvest for Scioto County was off about 11 percent
from the three-year average, for Pike County the deer kill was off
around nine percent, and for Lawrence County the deer kill was off
about eight percent, McCoy said.
“There
were some southeast counties where we anticipated seeing increases in
their respective harvests, and we did,” McCoy said.
It
may or it may not be telling that a number of counties that are
considered urban and suburban – and of which some were once
enfolded into one of the Wildlife Division’s former Urban Deer
Zones - had consistently shown to-date deer kill declines throughout
the entire 2017-2018 deer-hunting season.
The
urban-suburban counties of Cuyahoga, Lake, Geauga, Lorain, Lucas,
Franklin, Summit, and Medina each saw declines when stacked against
their respective 2016-2017 final figures.
And
most of them experienced declines in their archery kill numbers,
though McCoy is more than a little reluctant to say that their
respective herds are now in check due to controlled archery hunts.
“I
do not doubt for a second that there are communities within counties
where controlled archery hunts are having an impact,” McCoy said,
“but you have to look at the county as a whole; which makes it
difficult to say that on a county-wide basis such hunts are having a
widespread impact.”
Here
is the list of all deer checked by hunters during
the entire 2017-2018 deer season. The first number following the
county’s name shows the harvest number for the 2017-2018 season,
and the 2016-2017 season number is in parentheses.
Adams:
3,231 (3,272); Allen: 979 (1,039); Ashland: 3,254 (2,954); Ashtabula:
5,076 (5,040); Athens: 3,732 (3,646); Auglaize: 848 (751); Belmont:
2,931 (3,236); Brown: 2,521 (2,448); Butler: 1,401 (1,231); Carroll:
3,935 (3,586); Champaign: 1,197 (1,118); Clark: 685 (661); Clermont:
2,471 (2,343); Clinton: 810 (719); Columbiana: 3,257 (3,189);
Coshocton: 6,559 (5,929); Crawford: 1,222 (1,113); Cuyahoga: 1,033
(1,124); Darke: 731 (679); Defiance: 1,600 (1,675); Delaware: 1,574
(1,527); Erie: 1,119 (868); Fairfield: 1,969 (1,800); Fayette: 353
(312); Franklin: 788 (837); Fulton: 745 (826); Gallia: 2,599 (2,720);
Geauga: 1,818 (1,871); Greene: 778 (816); Guernsey: 4,753 (4,565);
Hamilton: 1,639 (1,589); Hancock: 1,228 (1,179); Hardin: 1,253
(1,220); Harrison: 3,674 (3,763); Henry: 733 (708); Highland: 2,668
(2,587); Hocking: 3,321 (3,275); Holmes: 4,108 (3,731); Huron: 2,377
(2,279); Jackson: 2,984 (2,870); Jefferson: 1,903 (2,800); Knox:
4,658 (4,495); Lake: 883 (961); Lawrence: 1,784 (1,942); Licking:
5,009 (4,971); Logan: 2,055 (1,919); Lorain: 2,255 (2,511); Lucas:
748 (755); Madison: 511 (482); Mahoning: 2,032 (1,933); Marion: 893
(886); Medina: 2,012 (2,109); Meigs: 3,115 (3,476); Mercer: 677
(661); Miami: 787 (774); Monroe: 2,618 (2,571); Montgomery: 704
(591); Morgan: 3,278 (2,992); Morrow: 1,544 (1,486); Muskingum: 5,274
(5,118); Noble: 3,036 (2,855); Ottawa: 482 (450); Paulding: 1,022
(954); Perry: 2,769 (2,787); Pickaway: 822 (724); Pike: 1,934
(2,083); Portage: 2,289 (2,211); Preble: 969 (847); Putnam: 781
(709); Richland: 3,505 (3,246); Ross: 3,053 (3,029); Sandusky: 904
(862); Scioto: 2,326 (2,479); Seneca: 1,895 (1,842); Shelby: 983
(961); Stark: 2,880 (2,778); Summit: 1,474 (1,572); Trumbull: 3,640
(3,699); Tuscarawas: 5,722 (5,039); Union: 939 (842); Van Wert: 499
(458); Vinton: 2,802 (2,668); Warren: 1,186 (1,095); Washington:
3,327 (3,402); Wayne: 2,226 (2,020); Williams: 1,598 (1,687); Wood:
931 (857); Wyandot: 1,559 (1,484). Total:
186,247 (182,169).
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
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