Ohio's to-date deer harvest totals continue to tumble

With no expectation of surprise, the current to-date deer kill stands well below its comparable 2017 to-date deer harvest numbers.

Based on raw data available weekly from the Ohio Division of Wildlife, the to-date deer kill as of December 18th is 145,568 animals. The comparable to-date figure for December 19^th, 2017 was 162,650, for a difference of 17,082 animals, or about 11 percent.

Even before the dismal drop of about 31 percent in the recently concluded two-day bonus gun deer hunt, the 2018-2019 season to-date deer harvest was lagging by 12,254 animals. Thus, the slow bonus season only added to this year’s on-going lackluster deer harvest.

And of Ohio’s 88 counties, fully 85 of them have posted current to-date declines when their numbers are stacked up to their 2017 to-date counterparts. A number of these shortfalls are significant, too.

Among the 85 counties were a few that had been running pluses up until the current to-date numbers became available. Counties such as Coshocton, Medina and Portage, for example, were on a hot, gain streak, but are now also listed in the decline side of the ledger.

Among the counties posting current to-date declines (with their 2017 to-date numbers in parentheses) are: Adams – 2486 (2,850); Ashtabula – 4,288 (4,514); Brown -1,876 (2,222); Carroll - 2,890 (3,400);Clinton -594 (726); Coshocton – 5,075 (5,731); Fayette – 241 (315); Guernsey – 3,507 (4,024): Harrison - 3,507 (3,166); Hocking - 2,385 (2,781); Knox – 3,565 (4,108); Lake – 663 (724); Licking – 3,727 (4,292); Lucas -581 (606); Marion – 682 (808); Morgan – 2,478 (2,814); Muskingum – 3,932 (4,584); Ottawa – 373 (402) Portage – 1,961 (1,990); Seneca – 1,590 (1,742); Trumbull – 2,996 (3,185); Tuscarawas – 4,320 (4,963); Vinton – 2,063 (2,464); and Washington – 2,595 (2,846).

The three counties posting gains (with their respective 2017 to-date numbers in parentheses) are: Clark – 617 (591); Geauga – 1,554 (1,547); and Greene – 676 (665).

Another way to look at the disparity between the to-date numbers for both 2017 and 2018 is that at this point in 2017 Ohio had seven counties with deer kills of four thousand or more animals each. For this year to-date that figure is just three counties.

Wildlife Division biologists are now suggesting that the 2018-2019 total all-seasons deer kill may be 10 percent less than the comparable 2017-2018 figure of 182,169 animals.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net