Though Ohio’s deer hunting is still in its early stages, kill numbers for the first 11 days of the state’s long archery season have markedly dropped when compared to roughly the same 2015-2016 season time frame.
Based on raw, weekly figures supplied by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife for the period September 24th through October 4th, Ohio’s archers killed 7,838 animals, among them being 2,408 antlered deer and the rest being antlerless deer.
For the same roughly parallel period during the 2015-2016 Ohio deer-hunting season hunters had shot 9,473 deer, among them being 2,978 antlered animals with the remainder being antlerless deer.
Thus, the to-date figure corresponds to a decline of 1,635 deer; a drop of more than 17 percent.
However, there are a handful of counties that have so far posted gains though the vast majority of Ohio’s 88 counties have demonstrated to-date deer kill declines, several of them distinctly so, too.
In a running tally, some of the current to-date noteworthy county highlights (with their respective to-date 2015-2016 season numbers in parentheses) and in alphabetical order are: Adams – 151 (203); Ashtabula – 259 (300); Athens – 133 (154); Brown – 76 (111); Clermont – 141 (195); Coshocton – 264 (219); Geauga – 132 (151); Guernsey – 124 (149); Hamilton – 199 (281); Harrison – 121 (154); Hocking – 115 (162); Holmes – 191 (186); Knox – 175 (201); Lake – 94 (100); Licking – 248 (301); Lorain – 178 (223); Medina – 130 (157); Muskingum – 166 (169); Portage – 168 (180); Richland – 165 (171); Stark – 125 (169); Trumbull – 299 (337); Tuscarawas – 164 (210); Vinton – 71 (107); Washington – 81 (115); and Williams – 80 (110).
Fayette County remains the only one of Ohio’s 88 counties to still record a deer kill in single digits – five. Last year for the same general to-date period Fayette County archery deer hunters had shot 13 animals.
And only one county saw an identical to-date deer kill for the 2015-2016 season and the current 2016-2017 season: Van Wert at 10 deer each.
Of Ohio’s 88 counties just seven counties have recorded increases in their respective deer kills when the roughly same to-date figures are laid side-by-side. In alphabetical order they are: Coshocton County – 264 (219); Cuyahoga County – 132 (105); Erie County – 54 (42); Holmes County – 191 (186); Jackson County – 121 (110); Logan County – 102 (101); and Wood County – 47 (43).
The Wildlife Division utilizes its now-computerized and telephone deer check-in system to assemble the agency’s on-line weekly deer kill tally. These figures are published on Wednesdays through to the end of the season and are broken down by county as well as by antlered and antlerless kills.
In order to compare apples to apples, however, a researcher must plumb the Wildlife Division’s electronic archives for the appropriate data.
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
With ODNR issuing nuisance permits it is no wonder the deer population has decreased. I have owned and ltved on 70 acres and hunted deer on it since 75. It irritates me to see commercialized farmers whole scale killing deer mostly in the spring killing does when it equates to a doe equals three counting their fawns! In some cases these same farmers kill the deer off on their own property but hunt upon others property as they know they no longer have deer own their own property!
ReplyDeleteWith the ODNR i the hands of insurance companies and commercial farmers the sportsman hunters no longer count.
Pheasants no longer appear with commercial farming where fields are striped to bare earth where there is no longer any cover. Travel along a interstate field after field clean as a floor where not even a field mouse stands a chance of survival.
Is it surprising a deer would try to eat grass in a median strip of a highway when there is no food in the field?