Thursday, October 11, 2018

Heat thus far appears to be melting Ohio's 2018 to-date deer kill

Some 12 days into Ohio’s all-inclusive four month-plus deer hunting season and it is obvious that heat has not been treating participants – or deer -very well.

As of October 10th, the to-date deer kill stands at 7,072 animals. That is a drop of 2,165 from the October 10th, 2017 to-date deer kill of 9,237 white-tails. By coincidence, this year’s to-date deer hunting calendar and that of last year are identical with the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s weekly reporting periods ending on Wednesdays.

The current weekly to-date report also shows that only six of Ohio’s 88 counties saw increases between their respective comparable 2017 to-date and 2018 to-date reporting periods. These counties – with their 2017 to-date numbers in parentheses – were: Brown – 96 (88); Coschocton – 291 (266); Gallia – 79 (64); Greene – 44 (43); Noble – 106 (93); and Vinton – 97 (96).

Obviously then the remining 82 Ohio counties saw drops between the two do-date tallies, and some declines were significant. Among those counties showing declines – again with their 2017 to-date numbers in parentheses – were: Adams – 103 (152); Ashtabula - 349 (255); Cuyahoga – 106 (167); Guernsey – 112 (163); Knox – 158 (190); Lake – 73 (102); Lucas – 43 (77); Muskingum – 144 (188); Morrow – 50 (76); Pike – 49 (82); Ross – 88 (123); Richland – 132 (179); Trumbull – 275 (356); Washington – 47 (102); and Williams – 70 (103).

The drop in the to-date kill appears most notably perhaps with antlerless animals. Last year the to-date number of antlerless deer killed was 6,569 animals. This year, the to-date figure stands at 4,912 antlerless deer, or a drop of 25 percent. The drop for antlered deer was roughly 18 percent.

A couple of other interesting 2018 to-date buck verses antlerless deer tidbits is that two counties saw identical kills. Jefferson County has thus far has seen 26 antlered and 26 antlerless deer being killed. Meanwhile, in Scioto County the numbers are 38 antlerless and 38 antlered deer killed to date.

And Ottawa County actually has thus far recorded more antlered deer killed than antlerless deer taken – nine for the former and eight for the latter.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net

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