Tis the season for fans of Wisconsin’s deer hunt. The annual nine-day gun season runs Nov. 22-30.
It falls to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to strike a balance — try to maintain a sustainable, healthy deer population and support the state’s deer hunting heritage.
“From a harvest standpoint our opening weekend harvest statewide is slightly ahead of last year. The buck harvest is up 1.4% and the antlerless harvest is up a nice 7%. So, that was good to see,” DNR deer program specialist Jeff Pritzl said at a media briefing Nov. 25, the halfway point of the hunt.
Pritzl says just over 90,000 deer were harvested last weekend.
“That brings up to a total harvest this year, going back to the beginning of the archery season, of just over 200,000. We’re at just over 212,000 deer now,” he said.
But it’ll take a whole lot more successful hunters to drive down Wisconsin’s soaring deer population.
As of the end of last year, the agency estimated the state had more than 1.8 million deer.
Their numbers are being felt. Deer roam urban areas. They feast on agricultural fields. Deer also cause up to 19,000 car collisions a year.
In the meantime, an increasing number are being hit by chronic wasting disease. It damages deers' brains and ultimately causes death. The DNR first reported cases within the deer population in 2002.
Deer herd specialist Erin Larson says the disease continues to be most prevalent in southwest Wisconsin.
Still, she encourages hunters statewide to have their deer sampled for CWD. Ways to participate include the self-service kiosk method or making an appointment with a local DNR staff person.
“I just also want to give a reminder that besides CWD, we’re always interested in hearing what you’re seeing with our deer herd out on the landscape," Larson said. "Any sick deer, anything that’s abnormal. By providing this information, you can help us find patterns and potentially identify any health concerns that we want to look into more."
Deer program specialist Jeff Pritzl ended the update on a bright note. He’s heartened by the number of deer without antlers already harvested this season.
“For a couple of reasons. As we were promoting before the season, this is a great year for hunters to hunt for their community and contribute, helping with the deer donation program," Pritzl says. "And in the farmland portions of that state, we really need to increase antlerless deer harvest."
There are more opportunities to harvest antlerless deer after the gun season closes.
Check out the DNR website for the statewide antlerless-only harvest and the antlerless-only holiday hunt ten days later.
