Pennsylvania Game News - October 2010 - 13

According to a study from 2002 through 2009, most yearling bucks harvested, such as this one taken in Fayette County last year by mentored youth hunter JOE SMITH, are taken during the firearms season.

areas will have more gun hunters. The relationship each season has on yearling and mature buck harvest rates may be different, which is exactly what I found, with firearms pressure greatest in the mountainous areas of the state and archery pressure greatest around the more populous areas in the southwest and southeast. The relationship between harvest rates for yearling bucks and hunting pressure is pretty simple: Hunting pressure during the firearms season is the best predictor of yearling buck harvest rates. Because only half of the yearling bucks are legal for harvest and relatively few yearling bucks are harvested during the archery season, most yearling males harvested are taken during the firearms season. The low number of yearling bucks harvested in archery season results in archery hunting pressure having little influence on the overall yearling buck harvest rates. Harvest rates of mature bucks, however, were influenced by both archery and firearms season pressure. Consequently, it took information about the combination of hunting pressure during both seasons to predict harvest rates of mature males. By comparing yearling and mature male harvest rates it can be seen that mature males are harvested at nearly twice the rate of yearling bucks. Because this difference is so high, archery season pressure improves harvest rate predictions, even though archers were less likely to harvest a mature
OCTOBER 2010

buck when compared with gun hunters. Hunter harvest is the single greatest mortality factor for deer in Pennsylvania. Consequently, hunters greatly influence deer numbers, and the information hunters provide to the PGC is important to estimating deer numbers. Hunter harvest and activity data are obtained from hunter report cards, online reports, and the GameTake Survey. Now that we know how hunting pressure can be used to estimate harvest rates, the importance of hunter cooperation is even more important. Every time a hunter accurately reports his harvest or returns a survey, he contributes to better deer management. Therefore, each and every Pennsylvania deer hunter can provide valuable information to estimate the deer population. Increased harvest reporting rates and response rates for Game-Take surveys will only improve the PGC’s ability to monitor and manage deer. The PGC and the Pennsylvania Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Penn State University continue to collect important information regarding harvest and survival rates of deer in Pennsylvania. Researchers have expanded the scope of their study to include new areas of the state, and continue to closely monitor the influence each hunting season has on the deer herd. Besides bucks, female deer have also been tagged and are being monitored. As deer hunters and their hunting tactics continue to evolve, biologists will be well equipped to address the influence that hunting has on Pennsylvania’s deer herd.
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Pennsylvania Game News - October 2010

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