WHEN NATURE CALLS : Statistics show that last year’s deer season was a good one
Posted on Sunday, September 2, 2007
Statistics don’t lie but they can be misleading. Just ask the big-leaguer with the. 375 average that strikes out at crunch-time or the career. 200 hitter that slaps the game-winning homer to clinch Game 7 of the World Series. The better hitter becomes the goat while the other gets in the history books.
In other words, stats are fun to look at and ponder but they’re not the be-all, end-all.
I’m not a statistics junkie but I admit to a certain enjoyment looking at numbers when they pertain to something I enjoy, like deer hunting. And for the sake of this column, I hope you do, too.
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission just completed the 2006-07 deer harvest report and I thought it’d be fun to see how last year shaped up. Depending on how your season went, you may agree or you may think the Game and Fish is full of it. That’s what makes stats fun.
I’ll concentrate mostly on the Ozarks but if you want to read the entire 36-page report, go to www. agfc. com.
Let’s cut to the chase. All hunters want to know how many deer were killed. Well, last year was dandy as 165, 663 deer were checked in. This is a 25-percent jump from the previous year’s total of 132, 415. The buck harvest increased 26 percent compared to 2005-06. The return of the two-buck limit in much of the Ozarks had a lot to do with the surge.
Not surprisingly, the highest density of whitetails is found in the West Gulf Coastal Plain where 50 percent of all harvest occurs. As far as the Ozarks go, last year’s deer population was considered stable to increasing.
The dressed body weights for adult bucks ranged from 109 pounds in the Ouachita Mountains and West Gulf Coastal Plain to 131 pounds in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. These are pretty much dead-on to the desired target weights.
The antler index is the sum of the total number of points, inside spread, left beam length and circumference. The highest average score (47 ) occurred on Crowley’s Ridge while the lowest (39 ) was in the West Gulf Coastal Plain.
The majority (36 percent ) of bucks harvested were 2. 5 years old. The cause for this is mainly the 3-point rule and other antler restrictions.
The Ozarks received good marks from the deer health summary and, quite frankly, I was a bit surprised due to limited food supplies. The highest number of fetuses produced was highest in the Ozarks (2. 0 ) and lowest in the Ouachita Mountains (1. 6 ). The target goal is 1. 7 per doe.
Kidney fat deposits ranged from a high of 127 percent in the Ozarks to a low of 33 percent in the Ouachitas. These deposits can be used to evaluate physical conditions of animals coming out of winter stress. The higher the value, the healthier the deer. Again, I was quite surprised.
Chronic Wasting Disease is still a big concern but none of the 3, 700 deer tested have shown any signs of the disease.
All serious deer hunters want their hunting times to coincide with the rut because that’s when bucks are, well, lovesick and stupid. Last year, the Ozarks had the earliest peak rut on Nov. 5 and the Mississippi Alluvial Valley had the latest on Nov. 26.
We’ve come a long way, baby. The deer harvest in 1938 was 203 compared to 194, 687 in 1999.
This is a no-brainer but November was the top month for deer harvesting with 101, 766 animals (61. 43 percent ) going down.
The West Gulf Coastal Plain was the most productive harvest area with one deer killed per 126 acres.
Our local Wildlife Management Areas didn’t seem to fare well according to the numbers. Hobbs WMA (19 ), Madison County WMA (58 ), and Wedington WMA (29 ) didn’t produce big numbers but all were permit hunts. White Rock WMA produced 475 deer on its 280, 000 acres. On the surface this appears poor (1 deer / 589 acres ) but much of this WMA isn’t hunted due to the steep, rugged terrain.
The 2006-07 harvest numbers according to method are as follows: archery 10, 614, crossbow 4, 608, muzzleloader 24, 851, modern gun 122, 673, unknown 2, 917. What the heck is unknown ?
Opening days are always special, in spirit and in the actual numbers. Archery / crossbow folks killed 1, 215 deer. Muzzleloaders brought down 5, 936 while opening day of the modern gun season saw a whopping 19, 857 deer checked in.
In case you were wondering, last year was hot. The archery opener averaged 90 degrees while the muzzleloader and modern gun openers averaged 72 and 60 degrees, respectively.
Numbers are all well and good but in the end, again, it depends on one’s perspective. I got my buck last year so I can agree that it was a pretty good year. Maybe some folks have a completely different view. One thing’s for sure, however. I — and all of my brothers in arms — cannot wait for the opportunity to influence this year’s numbers as well.
Bobby Hill is the outdoors columnist for the Times and lives in Fayetteville.
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