The latest to-date deer-harvest totals
for Ohio continue to demonstrate that either the state's white-tails
are giving hunters the slip or else there simply aren't as many
animals.
As of December 18 and for the first 81
days of deer hunting activity, the Ohio Division of Wildlife reports
a harvest of 164,897 animals. That figure represents slightly more
than a 12-percent decline for the same 2012 81-day harvest figure of
187,537 deer.
Broken down, the to-date antlered deer
harvest is down 13.85 percent while the to-date antlerless deer
harvest is down just shy of 11 percent.
However – and maybe this is a bit
interesting – the to-date archery-only harvest for antlered deer is
actually up 2.38 percent.
Meanwhile, the to-date archery-only
harvest of antlerless-only deer is off a statistically insignificant
0.56 percent.
Thus one could speculate that the early
antlerless-only muzzle-loading season in October has not hampered the
archery kill of either bucks or does.
In terms of county harvest, only nine
of Ohio's 88 counties have registered to-date deer harvest gains.
Any number of Ohio's high-profile
deer-hunting counties have experienced deep to-date deer-harvest
declines, too.
Among them being Washington County
(down 21.36 percent); Tuscarawas County (down 15.28 percent); Noble
County (down 11.53 percent); Meigs County (down 14.09 percent);
Muskingum County (12.82 percent); Harrison County (down 14.73
percent); Jackson County (down 18.91 percent); Jefferson County (down
21.03 percent); Licking County (down 18.03 percent); Adams County
(down 6.42 percent); and Guernsey County (down 12.33 percent).
Up here in Northeast Ohio, Ashtabula
County's to-date deer harvest is actually up: 2.72 percent along with
Trumbull County whose to-date deer-harvest is up 4.3 percent, and
Erie County which is up 15.93 percent.
Down, though, is the to-date deer
harvest for Lake County (off 16.69 percent); Geauga County (off 9.01
percent); and Lorain County (off 2.57 percent).
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
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