Missouri deer harvest follows regional trend

Department will host public meetings in 2014

to gather input on deer management plan

JEFFERSON CITY–Hunters checked 50,507 Deer during Missouri’s archery

courtesy MDC

deer season, bringing the state’s overall deer harvest to 250,787. That number is down from the 10-year average of 293,056.

The archery deer harvest was the second-largest in Missouri’s history, reflecting the continued growth in popularity of bowhunting. Top archery deer harvest counties were Jefferson, with 1,205 deer checked, St. Louis with 1,230, and Franklin with 1,018.

Resource Scientist Jason Sumners says the overall decrease is in line with deer-harvest figures from other Midwestern states.

“Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Minnesota all reported decreases of 7 to 26 percent in their firearms deer harvests,” says Sumners. “The relative importance of the factors responsible for those decreases differs from state to state, but the history behind them is similar.”

The “history” Sumners mentioned relates to the challenges state agencies have faced in managing deer numbers over the past 10 to 20 years. As deer-restoration programs that began in the 1930s and 1940s finally came to full fruition, agencies faced a different challenge – how to balance deer populations that provide excellent hunting without also causing unacceptable levels of human-deer conflict.

Reversing the decades-long emphasis on protecting female deer from harvest, biologists increasingly urged hunters to shoot does. This was aimed at shifting the sex ratio of deer herds from doe-heavy to a 50:50 mix of bucks and does. The goal was to reduce deer population growth in some areas, hold deer numbers steady in others and reduce deer numbers in areas that already were significantly above deer population targets.

“Over the course of about 15 years, we were able to apply the brakes to deer population growth,” says Sumners. “Then came a perfect storm of conditions we had no way of anticipating.”

Those unanticipated conditions were driven by a severe drought that began in 2012 and carried over into 2013. It caused the worst outbreak of hemorrhagic diseases – blue tongue and epizootic hemorrhagic disease, collectively referred to as HD – in recorded history. Those losses were deepened when the drought caused the smallest acorn crop since the department started keeping records in 1960. The lack of acorns forced deer to move more during the 2012 deer season, making it easier for hunters to find them and contributing to the second-largest deer harvest in Missouri history.

Hunter behavior changes slowly, so they continue to shoot the same number of deer they have in recent years. Consequently, the harvests in the first and second years after a HD die-off remain relatively stable. By the time hunters adjust their harvest behavior, a significant loss has accumulated.

Sumners says the Conservation Department’s Regulations Committee will consider these factors, along with the many comments they have received from hunters, when drafting recommendations to the Conservation Commission regarding 2014-2015 deer-hunting regulations.  The Commission approved deer season dates for the 2014-2015 season to provide hunters adequate notice, but season regulations may still be adjusted by the Conservation Commission. He says the remedy for the current dip in deer numbers is not as simple as it might seem at first glance.

“Missouri’s deer population isn’t evenly spread across the state or a county,” he says. “Blanket, one-size-fits-all answers aren’t necessarily the right solutions. But we want people to know that we are hearing their concerns and are committed to identifying ways to find the right balance.”

Sumners says it is important to view the current situation from a broad historical perspective. It took 50 years of cooperation between the Conservation Department, landowners, and hunters to reach the point where Missouri’s annual deer harvest topped 200,000 in 1995. It took another 10 years to achieve the balance of doe and buck harvest needed to stabilize deer numbers in parts of Missouri where deer had grown too numerous. Maintaining that stability in the face of weather extremes, disease outbreaks and annual harvest variations is a balancing act. Sumners also says it is important to keep this years’ harvest in perspective.

“The average deer harvests of approximately 290,000 over the past 10 years have given us a lopsided view of what the annual harvest should be,” he says. “We’ve seen dips and bumps in total harvest before and expect the ebb and flow will continue in the future. We are committed to continuing the science-informed management that has enabled successful management of a deer resource that supports 12,000 Missouri jobs and pumps $1 billion into our economy annually.”

The Department evaluates season information each year and last year reduced unlimited antlerless permits in some counties.  The management of white-tailed deer has always been both a biologically and socially complex issue, but management today is more challenging due to interrelated factors such as land use, ownership, hunter density, and human population levels. Today’s research efforts allow the agency to forecast population changes and evaluate the impact of various regulation options on the deer population.  Research, management, and public input will help the Department make more informed management decisions.

The Conservation Department plans to hold public meetings around the state this summer to gather input from hunters, wildlife watchers and others about the future of deer management in Missouri.  Public input has always been and will continue to be an important part of the future of deer management.

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Missouri’s deer-season outlook varies by location

Hunters who find fewer deer in their areas

this year should consider shooting fewer does.

JEFFERSON CITY – Missouri has an abundance of deer, according to Emily Flinn, a resource scientist with the Missouri Department of Conservation. She says the key to understanding this year’s deer forecast is regional and even local differences in deer number.

Flinn specializes in managing Missouri’s economically valuable white-tailed deer herd. She says the state’s deer harvest has been stable for the past 10 years.  However, she expects a below-average harvest this year.

She says the past 10 years have seen short-term and long-term changes in deer abundance across the state. For example, changes in hunting regulations have achieved the long-term goal of reducing deer numbers in parts of northern, western, and central Missouri. During the same period, less liberal harvest regulations have allowed deer numbers in the Ozarks, southwest, and southeast regions of the state to increase slowly but steadily.

Flinn says differences in how Missouri’s estimated 1.4 million deer are distributed across the state also occur at much smaller scales than regions. The most dramatic differences often occur in surprisingly small areas.

To illustrate this, Flinn points to the differences in deer population densities that resulted from last year’s unusually severe outbreak of hemorrhagic diseases, commonly called blue tongue or EHD (epizootic hemorrhagic disease). These diseases occur annually, but they are more prevalent in drought years. The extraordinarily severe drought of 2012 led to the worst hemorrhagic disease outbreak ever recorded in Missouri.

Reports of deer deaths come to the Conservation Department from its field staff and from citizens. Last year, the number of reports topped 10,000. Regions with the highest prevalence of deer deaths from hemorrhagic disease were northwest, west-central, and east-central Missouri. Southeast Missouri had relatively low rates of hemorrhagic disease reports. A map showing county-by-county hemorrhagic-disease reports is available at mdc.mo.gov/node/16479.

Even within counties and regions, the distribution of hemorrhagic disease losses was uneven.

“That is the nature of hemorrhagic diseases,” says Flinn. “You can have significant losses in a particular locality, and almost none in another part of the same county. This is one case where hunters and landowners are in the best position to know how deer populations in their areas are doing.”

That, says Flinn, brings up an important point about the challenge of managing deer in the wake of a severe hemorrhagic-disease outbreak. Past experience shows that deer numbers often continue to decline in a particular area for as much as three years after an outbreak. That is because hunters continue to harvest about the same number of deer – including does – even though they are not seeing as many deer.

“Most hunters don’t shoot more than one deer a year,” says Flinn. “If deer numbers are down in a particular area, and everyone in the area continues to shoot as many does as they have in the past, what starts out as a moderate reduction in deer numbers can turn into a big reduction. By the time hunters realize what has happened, deer numbers are down so much that it may take a few years to get back to where they were.”

The lesson here is that hunters who noticed lots of deer dying from hemorrhagic disease in their area last year should consider the numbers of deer they are seeing this year and potentially pass up shots at does to allow local populations to recover.

Flinn says Missouri’s deer harvest also is significantly affected by acorn abundance. This is most important in southern Missouri, where the landscape is heavily forested, and acorns outweigh all other deer food sources in the fall. When acorns are scarce, deer must move around to find food, and that makes them more visible to hunters. Deer behavior and deer harvest are much less dependent on acorn availability in northern Missouri, where acorns make up a smaller percentage of their diet.

The severe shortage of acorns last year due to drought is part of the reason that southern Missouri had a larger-than-usual deer harvest in 2012. Southern Missouri should have higher acorn production this year, so hunters will need to be more active to find deer.

The combined effects of reduced deer movement, a strong deer harvest in 2012, and losses to hemorrhagic diseases in a few Ozarks counties are likely to result in lower harvest totals this year.

The long-term downward trend in deer numbers in some counties prompted the Conservation Commission to reduce availability of antlerless-only deer tags this year in Atchison, Bates, Caldwell, Callaway, Carroll, Dallas, Howard, Laclede, Ray, and Vernon counties, and parts of Boone and Cass counties. Details are explained on page 28 of the 2013 Fall Deer and Turkey Hunting Regulations & Information booklet, which is available wherever hunting permits are sold, at MDC offices and online atmdc.mo.gov/node/3656.

Flinn said an important point for hunters to remember this year is the fact that chronic wasting disease (CWD) now exists innorth-central Missouri. There is no evidence that CWD can affect humans or domestic animals, but it is a threat Missouri’s deer-hunting traditions. It also threatens the $1 billion in economic activity and 12,000 Missouri jobs that depend on a thriving deer herd.

To minimize the risk of spreading this and other deer diseases, hunters are urged to properly dispose of deer carcasses and take other precautions. These are outlined on page 4 of the 2013 Fall Deer and Turkey Hunting Regulations & Informationbooklet.

“The long-term health of our deer herd depends on carefully managing CWD,” says Flinn. “I can’t overemphasize the importance of hunters’ role in this effort. We can’t do it without their active help, especially with proper disposal of deer carcasses.”

For more information, go online to mdc.mo.gov and search Chronic Wasting Disease.

-Jim Low-

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Conservation Officials work with hunters to monitor deer herd

Hunters can compensate for losses to hemorrhagic diseases.

JEFFERSON CITY– Conservation officials say they don’t plan immediate measures to compensate for deer losses to hemorrhagic diseases, but they will look carefully at harvest information, reports of sick deer and hunter surveys when considering future hunting regulations. They note hunters’ key role managing deer numbers and suggest shooting fewer does if hunters notice declining deer numbers.

Two hemorrhagic diseases – blue tongue and epizootic hemorrhagic disease – occur naturally in Missouri’s deer herd every year. They are unrelated to chronic wasting disease (CWD), which currently is found only in Macon and Linn counties.

Both varieties of hemorrhagic disease are spread by midges, biting flies that breed near water. Outbreaks are worse in drought years, because midges have a better chance of transmitting the disease among deer concentrated around water holes.

“This year’s drought was one of the worst on record,” says Resource Scientist Emily Flinn. “Missouri had significant hemorrhagic disease outbreaks in 1980, 1988, 1998 and 2007, but this year’s outbreak was more widespread and severe than any previously documented hemorrhagic outbreak in Missouri.”

According to Flinn, some counties may have lost 15 to 20 percent of the deer population to hemorrhagic disease countywide, with localized areas within counties having upwards of 50-percent mortality. However, county-wide assessments can be misleading as EHD may impact one part of a county and have little impact elsewhere in the county.

Flinn says depending on the situation, regulations changes might need to be considered. Regulations were changed following the 1988 hemorrhagic outbreak, but not in response to the 1998 outbreak. 

“Reported hemorrhagic disease cases, harvest totals, hunter surveys, herd size, and other factors will assist us in determining whether regulation changes should be considered,” she says. “Hemorrhagic disease losses could be reflected in some county harvest totals this year, but those totals will likely not tell the whole story. Typically, harvest stays up for a year or so after an outbreak and then declines. This is because hunters typically still see enough deer to shoot approximately the same number as before, delaying the harvest decline, but causing a larger decrease a couple years down the road.”

Flinn adds, “There is the possibility that decreases in deer populations due to hemorrhagic disease might not be as apparent to hunters because this year’s low acorn production will make deer more susceptible to harvest, especially in the southern Missouri.”  Most hunters don’t use all their antlerless permits and can cut back doe harvest if deer populations appear low in their hunting area.

In some areas, deer populations will recover in a few years because of low doe harvest. However, some areas are less likely to rebound quickly due to high doe harvest, potentially leading to poor hunting conditions in the coming years. Therefore, if hunters do notice a significant decrease in deer sightings or found numerous dead deer typical of hemorrhagic disease this year, then they should consider harvesting fewer does.  Flinn says overall Missouri has a strong, healthy deer herd.

Citizen reports of sick and dead deer received this year are a key source of information for determining which areas are hardest hit by hemorrhagic diseases. Counties with the most reports this year included Chariton, with 317 reported deer deaths as of Nov. 26, Osage with 313, Benton with 239, Boone with 178, Monroe with 177, Daviess with 176, Shelby with 169, and Randolph with 158. However, the highly localized nature of hemorrhagic disease can be seen even in counties like Benton and Osage, where some areas reported no hemorrhagic disease cases, while other areas had significant deer mortality. 

Further information about hemorrhagic disease and a map showing where in Missouri the 6,100-plus reported cases occurred are available at mdc.mo.gov/node/16479.

-Jim Low-

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