2001 Deer Hunting Season Wildlife Report

Date: November 29, 2001
To: Darrell Bazzell, Former Secretary
From: Bill Mytton, DNR Deer and Bear Ecologist

This report should be viewed as preliminary at best, as we still need to complete the December Zone T and late archery seasons. The 2001 deer seasons are ongoing and most of this year's data are still being tabulated and analyzed. We can say that 2001 has been a year chocker block full of deer issues and debates, and that we cannot expect to break national harvest records every year!

In a word, abnormal describes the 9-day firearm season just completed. The regular firearm season was defined by unusually mild weather and a snowless Wisconsin landscape. The brown/gray color scheme marked only the 3^rd time in 40 years that this season has gone 9 days without appreciable snow cover anywhere in the state. In 2001 the only report of snow on the ground was in a small pocket of Florence County, where Tim Gruenwald reported a 3" snowfall on Tuesday morning. Tim commented, " I was just like everyone else in that I had seen very few deer during the previous four days, but once we had the snow, the ground was literally covered with deer tracks". Tim also noted that his 12 year-old son shot his first buck and a doe on opening day of the 9-day regular firearm season. This was after starting the year off to a fast start by shooting a doe with the same bow his dad shot his first archery deer with when he started archery hunting almost 33 years ago (adjacent photo).

Perspectives

It should be noted that going into the 2001 fall hunt our preliminary estimate for the state's deer population was at 1.65 million deer, which was down from the 1.8 million of fall 2000. This represents an 8% reduction in the deer herd, which should be reflected in this year's harvest. If you combine this herd reduction with the poor weather conditions, we would expect to see a lowering of the statewide harvest. At this point, this reduction is most obvious in the antlerless harvest.

The preliminary numbers for the early archery, October Zone T and 9-day regular firearm season are 69,478, 44,516 and 291,563 respectively for a mid-season total of 405,557 deer harvested (Figures 1, 2 and 3). Figure 4 shows the preliminary 9-day harvest by County and Region. I believe that when we get the final data including the muzzleloading, late Zone T, late archery season and tribal numbers, we will be approaching a total harvest of approximately 425,000 deer. By comparison to the historical harvest numbers, this 9-day regular firearm season, and October Zone T hunt would rank as the sixth highest season on record (Figure 5).

As we do every year, we will be closely examining the unit and county information in the coming weeks. We won't have a complete picture of this year's harvest until February when all the data is in and tabulated. At that time, we will make a final determination on the accuracy of our pre-hunt deer population figure of 1.65 million.

This year's hunt was accomplished through the help of 694,111 gun deer license buyers from all 50 states and 10 foreign countries, participating in what is truly an "International Event". This indicates why white-tailed deer management is so controversial and important to the Wisconsin economy.

The 2001 harvest is certainly below the desired level the Department would have liked to achieve. In some areas of the state, we will need to continue our herd reduction efforts. We don't want to slip backward from the progress we've made over the last several years, and if we continue to provide Wisconsin's deer hunters with the right tools, I'm confident we won't.

Early Archery Season

The first reports from the field are indicating that this year's archery harvest is off to a slower start than we observed in 2000, but hunters have harvested some huge bucks and have had a safe season to this point. The primary reduction in the early archery season is again on the antlerless side of the equation as we have only observed a 7% decrease in buck kill from the 2000 season, even though we saw an over-winter population decrease from 2000 (1.8 million) to 2001 (1.65 million) of 8%. The 12% decrease in buck and antlerless harvests indicates there are different dynamics working between the firearm and archery seasons in relation to the degree of reduced harvest. The difference between the reduced archery harvest (12%) and reduced gun harvest (33%) suggests that other factors, primarily the weather conditions had a major role in the reduced 9-day gun harvest. At this time, the "tabulated" early archery harvest stands at 69,478 deer, already the 4^th highest archery harvest on record. The 76 Zone T units and the availability of free antlerless carcass tags continue to keep the archery harvest at a high level (Figure 1).

October Zone T Hunt

The October Zone T hunt included 76 DMU's in 2001, down from the 86 units involved in 2000. Our early analysis indicates 44,516 deer were taken during these four days. To put this into perspective, a total of 72,844 deer were harvested statewide in 1970, and that hunt included both bucks and does. Park units were not part of the October Zone T season framework, but will need to be watched as deer populations in these parks continue to compromise native vegetation and other fauna.

For the second consecutive year many northern forest units were included in the special October Zone T hunts. It is interesting to note that Oneida County led the state in harvest for the second year in a row. It is obvious that Conservation Congress Chairman Steve Oestreicher is getting the word out to hunters in that county, and I believe may even be participating in the hunt himself. Congratulations, Steve!

The farmland Zone T units are showing declining harvest levels during the early season, while our best data indicates that their deer populations are increasing slowly over time. In addition, we will have to encourage hunters to continue to use antlerless tags as a good deer management tool on their private properties. These farmland DMU's will have to be watched closely for possible inclusion in an Earn-A-Buck season down the road if the antlerless harvest doesn't show an increase over time.

The October Zone T hunter participation in 2001 was excellent with orange clad groups of hunters being very visible, especially throughout parts of the north. Hunter participation varied between public and private lands with hunters being most visible on public lands. The private land owner continues to participate in this hunt, but is much less visible in their activities, which leads to many hunters feeling like all the deer are being shot on public lands.

Buck and Doe Fawn Percentages during the October Zone T Season

There continues to be a concern by many hunters about the harvest of buck fawns. Many hunters believe the buck fawns are being disproportionately harvested to their availability in the fall deer herd. In 2001 Department biologists and registration station personnel collected data that clearly indicates during the 2001 October Zone T season that antlerless animals were shot in the exact same proportions they are found in the population (Figure 6). This is evident in the over 12,500 deer aged (28% of the total harvest) where 54% adult doe, 22% buck fawn and 24% doe fawn ratios were observed at registration stations across the state. These ratios have not changed since the 1960's when we first started to monitor the sex and age of the antlerless harvest. The registration station is still the most reliable and efficient place to document this for the hunting public. We will continue to record the ratios of the antlerless harvest in our annual reports so the general public can become more aware of just how these animals fit into the overall calculations of the SAK model.

Youth Hunts - A Secretary's Issue

One of the top priorities of Former Secretary Darrell Bazzell and the Department was to increase youth, disabled and minority hunter participation in Wisconsin. In 2001, we helped sponsor the third Governor's Youth Deer Hunt at the Rush Creek Hunt Club in Iowa County. This year's hunt went beyond just being successful in that we had great participation from both young and new hunters, and the sponsoring land owner showed us first class hospitality by providing a warm fire and hot meals. It should also be pointed out that Former Secretary Bazzell got the novel experience of being guided by Mike Ramos, who provided excellent hunting commentary with Darrell throughout the morning, while getting to see several Iowa County bucks up close and personal. The kids excelled on the hunt by harvesting 6 antlerless deer on what proved to be an extremely windy and cold day. The common comment from the kids and their sponsors was how much fun they had on the hunt and that they couldn't imagine a better setting and opportunity than the October Zone T season as there wasn't any pressure to harvest a buck or compete with multitudes of other hunters for spots in the woods.

Antlerless Permit Availability

Permit availability should not have been an issue this year as each hunter received one Zone T tag under each license authority (1/archery, 1/gun). This free tag was part of every back tag and automatically issued to every hunter with no additional effort on the vendor's part. This approach was to have saved on administrative costs in 2001. However, the budget bill contained legislation that calls for a $0.50 charge for every "free" Zone T carcass tag we give away. This equates to nearly $460,000.00 in expenditures on an annual basis. We must address this issue to find a method to reduce the cost to the Department.

Wisconsin Deer Donation Program

To date hunters have donated 3,253 deer to the Wisconsin Deer Donation Program. This equates to about 150,000 pounds of meat distributed to food pantries across the state to help feed needy people (Figure 7).

These numbers are down by about 50% compared to this time last year. But given the extremely warm weather during the 9-day hunt, the reduction of Zone T units and the reduced number of free antlerless permits, this is still a significant effort to help food pantries.

You'll note in the table that some county totals are blank because they were ineligible to participate. Participation in the program required that a significant portion of that county be involved in a Zone T hunt. However, the statutory language that previously limited a deer donation program to counties with Zone T has been changed in the last legislative session. New language will go into effect next year that will allow us to implement a statewide program regardless of the Zone T units if we have funds available after paying all the county WDACP administrative costs, abatement materials and farmer damage claims. This new language also includes a voluntary dollar donation hunters may make to the WI Deer Donation Program at the time they purchase a hunting license. We will know how our budget stands in regard to the donation program early next June.

With the snow in the northwest and cooler temperatures across the state, we're hopeful that hunters will make a strong finish to the late antlerless season and bump these numbers up for the final tally.

Hunting Conditions

The 2001 deer hunting seasons to date could all be characterized by mild and less than perfect deer hunting weather conditions. The snowless Wisconsin landscape was the story of the day for the entire 9 days of the regular firearm season. This equates to poor deer hunting, especially when numerous days of the season were also plagued by heavy fog, drizzle to heavy rain, or dry and noisy conditions in the woods. This particular weather pattern makes it very difficult for hunters to see and hear deer. It also created a situation where many hunters delayed harvesting antlerless deer for fear of losing the meat to the warm conditions. Equally as frustrating was that with few exceptions; both weekends of the hunt had particularly horrible weather conditions throughout the state.

A significant problem that arises from a season like this is the almost automatic observation from hunters that there are no deer in the woods. This will be a constant comment to which we will need to respond during 2002. Our preliminary data do suggest a somewhat smaller herd, but we will likely have an over-winter herd of approximately 1.0 million deer.

The unusual weather conditions of the 9-day regular firearm season are a primary reason for the Department to continue to promote the importance of October and December Zone T seasons. It simply isn't wise to put all your "harvest" eggs in one basket. If we did not have the October and December seasons to buffer the reduced harvest during the 2001 9-day regular firearm season, we would inevitably see deer populations rebound quickly in our management units due to an under harvest situation.

2001 Aging Results

Yearling Buck Percents (YB%'s)- The big story this year is that harvested YB%s are down substantially statewide compared to last year and relative to the 10-year average. The YB%'s in the south (56%), northwest (48%), and the northeast (51%) were down –23%, -19%, and –18%, respectively, relative to the 10-year average. The central forest, west central coulee country, and the east central farmland YB %'s were 58% (-13%), 65% (-13%), and 67% (-12) respectively.

Ordinarily, we'd suspect that recruitment was down, but this does not seem to be the case. Declining YB%'s statewide are long term trends over the past 10-20 years that reflect a longer term change in harvest dynamics and, to a certain extent, declines seen this year are also part of the long-term trend. Our best guess is that hunter selectivity and season timing are the mechanisms behind this year's declining percentages. This year's season seemed to coincide with the peak of the rut and weather conditions that were very poor for hunting. Anecdotal reports were that bucks were shot while pursuing does and that check stations were seeing a higher percentage of older bucks (2-3 yr olds). Moreover, this season followed a successful October Zone T and Zone T hunts the year before, making it less imperative for the hunter to put more venison into the freezer. Taken together, we believe that hunters were selectively waiting for older bucks and that rutting activities were making older bucks more vulnerable.

Yearling Doe Percents (YD%'s)- Harvested YD%'s were down as well this year relative to last year and relative to the 10-year average. Declines were small, however, and the absolute values for this year were well within the range considered normal and healthy for Wisconsin's deer population. The YD%'s in the northwest (27%), northeast (29%), central forest (32%), west central coulee country (39%), east central farmland (39%), and the south (37%) were -8%, -3%, -4%, -8%, -2%, and –9% respectively relative to the 10-year average.

The farmland units declined the most, possibly because of reduced breeding among fawns during the 1999 season. Fawn breeding is relatively unimportant elsewhere. The fact that we're down relative to the 10-year averages is expected because the 1990's were marked by a series of mild winters and an increase in artificial feeding. Therefore, recruitment during the 1990's was likely elevated. Solid recruitment among does (YD%'s in the 27-39% range) suggests that the decline in yearling buck percentages is due to something other than depressed recruitment.

Yearling Buck Antler Development - The trend in yearling buck antler development supports interpretations made for yearling doe percentages. Fork-horned yearlings were up in the northwest 62% (+4%) and the northeast 66% (+13%), and stationary elsewhere. The central forest was 65% (-2%), east central farmland was 88% (+1%), west central coulee country was 92% (-1%), and the south was 94% (-1%). The spring/summer body condition of white-tailed deer in southern and central deer populations is sufficiently buffered by agricultural foods such that winter severity impacts on antler development are minimal. In the north, however, winter/spring malnutrition can be reflected in poor antler development among yearlings the following fall. Despite a somewhat long winter in parts of the north (snow into April), the percentage of fork-antlered yearlings did not decrease and, in fact, increased. It may be that hunter selectivity has started to influence this measurement as well, or that artificial feeding in winter may be having an effect on antler development in northern deer.

The Health of the Herd

Surveillance of Wisconsin deer for important emerging diseases is continuing this year. The wildlife health staff was assisted by 11 DNR staff and 28 volunteers during the major sampling effort on opening weekend of the gun deer season. So far, samples have been collected from approximately 510 deer from 16 counties. With collaboration from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Veterinary Services Laboratory, the deer samples will be tested for bovine tuberculosis, chronic wasting disease, 2 viruses (Blue Tongue and Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease) that cause hemorrhagic disease in deer, and leptospirosis. Results should be available in 3-4 months.

Bovine tuberculosis (TB) and chronic wasting disease (CWD) are important emerging diseases of deer in the United States, but have not yet been found in Wisconsin's free-ranging white-tailed deer. To date, more than 1500 deer have been tested in Wisconsin and found negative for TB and 650 deer have been tested and found negative for CWD. Continued monitoring for these 2 diseases is important, as TB outbreaks in farmed elk have occurred in Manitowoc County and there are currently 2 elk farms in Wisconsin with animals quarantined because they came from a CWD positive farm in Colorado. These known disease concerns were combined with other factors (such as locations where there is interest in establishing new wild elk herds and areas where no previous sampling had been done) to target where deer were sampled this fall.

Hunters were very interested in the disease-sampling program and more than willing to allow the DNR's wildlife health team and volunteers to take samples from their deer. Hunters participating in the survey received self-addressed postcards in order to get the disease testing results back for their individual deer. An updated new brochure on deer disease issues, "Keeping Wisconsin Deer Healthy", was distributed widely. The wildlife health team and other wildlife management bureau staff have handled several hundred calls from hunters about deer diseases and meat safety issues.

Where Do We Go From Here?

The Department and you personally will be hearing from many hunters that "there are no deer left". We heard this in 1960 and 1990 when we last saw weather conditions similar to those we just experienced. We should not repeat history and become overly conservative on quotas in 2002 as happened in 1960 and 1990. It took us years to recover from inadequate harvests following these "brown" seasons. Deer management is a dynamic process, which requires the best science and data we can gather. Managing our deer herd year to year based on what we saw on the "stump" is not good for our hunters or the deer.

REFLECTIONS

I want to stress once again Wisconsin's dependence on the hunter as a "real manager" of the deer resource. Historically, society has viewed deer hunters simply in the recreational sense. The 2001 license sales indicate that we had almost as many hunters buying licenses as we did in 2000. This is the real indication of the dedication of the Wisconsin deer hunter, especially in the wake of what happened on September 11. The press has tried to make headlines by indicating that the New York and world events would cause hunters to drop out of the annual Wisconsin deer season. THINK AGAIN! As you and many of us know, hunting is about family, friends, tradition, and generations of values being ingrained into the souls of the hunting community. The current war and world events only stresses to the rest of the world that they too should follow the example of our hunters who return to Wisconsin annually from around the globe, to participate with friends and family in an event that truly defines what many other Americans are just now rediscovering!

A RHYMN IN TIME TO CARRY YOU TILL THE NEXT DEER CAMP

'Twas the Night before Deer Camp
by Dave Birren
(With apologies to Major Henry Livingston Jr.)

'Twas the night before deer camp, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, except for the louse
Who was in quite a tizzy, a lather, a froth,
For the annual trip to the cabin up north.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
"Thank God they aren't going," I cursed in my head,
"After whining last year about poor Bambi's mom,
And how it must scare her to be fired upon."

When out in the lane there arose such a clatter,
I ran up from the cellar to see what was the matter.
Away down the driveway I flew like a flash,
Out past the bushes, the spruce and the ash.

With the moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
It looked just like deer camp, when it's twenty below.
Then what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a 16-point buck and eight does to the rear.

He sprouted such horns - they must not have shed -
That looked like tree branches adorning his head.
More winsome than Mae West his damsels they came,
And he stamped and he pawed and he called me by name;

You dumb, sorry jerk, you stupid galoot!
You beer-gutted loser, you can't even shoot!
If a bull's-eye were stuck to my shoulder right now
You couldn't come near it, you quivering sow!

As drops in a hurricane scream to the sky,
This buck and his harem, down the lane they did fly.
I stood for a moment, not believing my senses,
Then ran to the house, barely noting the fences.

When I picked myself up and released the barbed wire
I shook off the snow from my hunting attire,
So carefully purchased from Gander and Bean,
Cabela's and Bauer. I fairly did preen

Out there in the moonlight, for I surely would hate
For my newly-bought duds to get dirty just yet.
I stumbled on back to the house in a daze,
Wondering if I were drunk, dead or crazed.

That buck - how he taunted me there by the fen!
Those horns - how handsome they'd look in my den!
I wallowed in reverie past midnight's bells
While packing up sausages, cheeses and shells.

The stump of a stogie still clenched in my teeth,
My head was encircled with smoke like a wreath.
I couldn't escape the weird vision I'd had
Of the deer who just recently called me a cad.

I shook off the haze and returned to my station,
Loading the pickup truck full of libations,
So my buddies, at breakfast and every card game,
Could drink something manly, not milky or tame.

My task at an end, I collapsed like a fawn
On the couch, for an hour of sleep before dawn.
Out in the yard that 16-point buck
And his ladies were laughing and running amok.

When I woke and looked out, I knew not to go,
For I saw the deer's message stamped out in the snow.
Too late I recalled what I read with dismay:
"YOU CAN'T BUY A LICENSE ON OPENING DAY!"

DNR Five regions of Wisconsin

Northern (NOR)	North East (NER)	South East (SER)	South Central (SCR)	West Central (WCR)

Figure 6. Sex Ratio of Antlerless Deer Harvested during the 2001 Zone T October Hunt by Region.

12,595 Deer were aged during the early Zone T hunt, held Oct 25 - 28. SE Region did not age any deer during this period, since there are no Zone T in that region.