Depending upon where
one lives in Ohio, either the rut is still in full swing or the
bucks’ testosterone levels have begun to ebb.
And many of the
state’s deer hunters are taking advantage of the annual mating
ritual, with a to-date kill of 54,308 animals and based upon the end
of the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s weekly reporting period through
November 13th, 2018.
That 54,308 figure
is, however, 2,367 fewer animals than the 56,675 deer reported taken
during the comparable to-date November 14th, 2017 reporting period.
Still the 54,308
number represents an increased kill of 15,982 deer taken during the
previous week. Or put another way, the 15,982 figure does represent a
small shrinkage from the weekly reported deer kill between the
October 30th, 2018 and November 6th, 2018 accounting.
Obviously, there are
many ways to look at the weekly deer kill numbers.
Take, for instance,
only 21 of Ohio’s 88 counties reported increases in the number of
deer taken to-date as of November 13th, 2018 when compared to their
comparable November 14th, 2017 numbers. Last week, increases were
noted in 48 of Ohio’s 88 counties. And for the first time this
year, Coshocton County saw a decline in its comparable 2017 and 2018
respective to-date numbers.
Only one county –
Preble – saw an identical to-date 2017 and 2018 number (349
animals). The rest of the state’s counties saw respective declines.
Among the
year-to-year comparison declines (with their respective to-date 2017
numbers in parentheses – and take note of some of the steep
fall-offs) were: Adams – 991 (1,118); Ashtabula – 1,425 (1,546);
Brown – 719 (745); Coshocton – 1,981 (2,016); Geauga – 634
(702); Guernsey – 1,161 (1,229); Hamilton – 746 (849); Hocking –
857 (935); Holmes – 1,259 (1,352); Lake – 338 (406); Lorain –
730 (822); Lucas – 321 (355); Muskingum – 1,284 (1,395); Shelby –
286 (328); Trumbull – 1,300 (1,335); Tuscarawas – 1,467 (1,545);
and Vinton – 747 (797).
And among the
gainers (with their respective to-date 2017 numbers in parentheses)
were: Auglaize – 289 (282); Gallia – 634 (600); Hardin – 346
(343); Jefferson – 454 (444); Media – 746 (707); Ottawa – 165
(162); Portage – 968 (825); Stark – 995 (987); and Wayne 709
(701).
Also, to-date as of
the November 13th 2018 reporting period, there are 10 counties with
kills exceeding one thousand animals each. As for the November 14th,
2017 reporting period, there were 12 such counties, including one
county – Coshocton - with more than two thousand animals reported
as being taken.
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
No comments:
Post a Comment