Pennsylvania Game News - October 2010 - 12

for only 25 percent of the total antlered deer harvest. While the differences in buck harvests between archery and rifle season are interesting, they provide only some of the data required for deer biologists to estimate deer numbers. In addition to the buck harvest by season, the harvest rate — the percent of the buck population harvested — must be estimated. For example, if there were 100 antlered deer at the beginning of the hunting season, and 50 were harvested, the antlered harvest rate would be 50 percent. However, we never know how many bucks there are at the beginning of the deer season. Instead, we estimate harvest rates based on a sample, the radio-collared deer known to be alive at the start of the hunting season. We know how many radio-collared bucks are alive at the beginning of the archery season, and can monitor when each deer dies as the various hunting seasons progress. This gives us an estimate for harvest rates in the WMUs with radio-collared deer, but what about WMUs without radio-collared deer?

BESIDES BUCKS, female deer, such as the one here caught in a Clover trap, have also been tagged and are being monitored as part of the PGC study.

To estimate harvest rates in other WMUs, I studied the relationship between harvest rates of radio-collared deer and hunting pressure in those WMUs. Hunting pressure — the number of days hunters pursue deer — for archery and firearms season is measured by annual Game-Take surveys mailed to about 19,000 hunters randomly selected by the Game Commission. Thinking about different regions in Pennsylvania, you can imagine that some areas will have more bowhunters, and other

Hypothetical example Start with 1,000 yearling bucks and 1,000 mature bucks. Harvest rates for both would be 60%, however, because half of the yearlings are protected their harvest rate is 30%. So, 600 mature bucks and 300 yearlings are harvested, making a total antlered harvest of 900 deer. 25% of the antlered harvest occurs during the archery season (225 antlered deer). However, slightly more than 25% of yearlings are harvested during the archery season and slightly less than 25% of mature bucks are harvested during the archery season. Say 27% of the yearling harvest occurs during the archery season and 24% of the mature harvest occurs during the archery season, that would mean 81 yearlings and 144 mature bucks would be harvested during the archery season, and 219 yearlings and 456 mature bucks harvested during the firearms season. So, even though yearlings are harvested at a slightly higher rate (27% of the yearling harvest versus 24% of the mature harvest), there are still only 81 deer that are harvested. Because this number is so low compared to the 144 mature buck harvest and the 219 yearling firearm and 456 mature buck firearm harvests, the hunting pressure effect on yearling buck harvest during the archery season is minimized, and is not a useful predictor.

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Pennsylvania Game News - October 2010

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