Public Land Deer Harvest in Pennsylvania

[JakeJD]

Penn State is in the middle of a radio collar deer research project. I thought this was pretty interesting:

For deer living on public land, their days are numbered, right? Is surviving the hunting season on public land impossible for deer?

There is a way to answer these questions. Through research! By capturing deer in the winter, placing radio-collars on them and tracking their movements and survival throughout the year or years to come, we can find out who and how many are slipping through the season unharvested (and maybe even undetected) by hunters.

So, what are the harvest rates of deer in Pennsylvania? From our field studies and population monitoring, statewide, about 40% of all antlered deer are harvested, and less than 20% of antlerless deer are harvested.

But that is statewide, what happened during the 2014-15 season on our public land study areas?

At the start of the 2014 rifle seasons, we were tracking 32 deer with GPS collars. These deer were located on state forest lands where along with the regular antlerless allocation hundreds of DMAP permits had been purchased by hunters.

So who lived to see the other side of the season?

When the sun set on the last day, 31 of these deer were still alive. One deer died of a gunshot, but was not recovered.

It is often thought that deer on public lands, especially lands with DMAP permits, don't stand a chance. As much as it may be expected for harvest rates to be high on these lands, field data have yet to corroborate this view. In fact, after 2 years into this study, harvest rates are among the lowest we have observed in the last 15 years of field studies.

Deer possess a remarkable ability to adapt to humans. Whether they are roaming the wilds of Penn’s woods or the urban jungle Pittsburgh or Philly, white-tailed deer are masters in the art of survival and the avoidance of their biggest predator, people.

-Chris Rosenberry, Supervisor
Deer and Elk Section
PA Game Commission

See more here:

http://ecosystems.psu.edu/research/proj ... /news/2015

[Zona]

Love the Blog. Lot of great information.

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[csoult]

AGREE

[csoult]

I wonder though, how much they have affected their own study. What I mean is.... The deer that have been captured know that, with human smell comes very bad things, tranquilized, fondled, collared. Deer already inherently avoid humans, but some of them may not know that they are a bad thing for sure, just something different in the woods. These deer though they get a smell of a human and it's a whole different memory, therefore are much less likely to make a mistake on human scent. Does that make sense?

[Zona]

I wonder though, how much they have affected their own study. What I mean is.... The deer that have been captured know that, with human smell comes very bad things, tranquilized, fondled, collared. Deer already inherently avoid humans, but some of them may not know that they are a bad thing for sure, just something different in the woods. These deer though they get a smell of a human and it's a whole different memory, therefore are much less likely to make a mistake on human scent. Does that make sense?

Yeah, like touching a hot stove. That first experience usually makes one more cautious. The researchers stated they rarely catch a deer in the same trap twice, so they do learn to some extent.

[Kraftd]

The other bias I see in these kinds of studies is the collar itself. I know personally, I'd be reluctant to shoot a collared deer, especially a doe. I know they tend to try and advertise that these deer are legal to harvest, but given the choice between collared and not, I shoot not every time. Perhaps just a personal opinion, but I'm guessing I may not be alone. Especially if you aren't aware of the study, I may be apt to think it is best to leave it for science or that it may be a pet or something. That being said, 31 of 32 is pretty eye opening.

[JakeJD]

I wonder though, how much they have affected their own study...

I understand what you are saying, but the reverse could also be argued. They caught the 32 dumbest deer in the forest - deer that would walk into a net trap.

Just sayin...

[JakeJD]

The other bias I see in these kinds of studies is the collar itself. I know personally, I'd be reluctant to shoot a collared deer, especially a doe. I know they tend to try and advertise that these deer are legal to harvest, but given the choice between collared and not, I shoot not every time. Perhaps just a personal opinion, but I'm guessing I may not be alone. Especially if you aren't aware of the study, I may be apt to think it is best to leave it for science or that it may be a pet or something. That being said, 31 of 32 is pretty eye opening.

Agreed. Maybe I am paranoid, but I don't like to be on the radar, especially the government's radar. I would shoot the non-collared deer every time just so I didn't have to deal with the government.

[Zona]

The only one I wouldn't shoot is the buck I found by matching up their videos with my topo map. Couldn't help myself. Lol

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[Motivated]

I love this blog too! A few weeks ago they discussed whether or not hunters are more or less likely to shoot radio collared deer. Roughly a wash on this.

Even if their sample size is too low, the difference in public versus private hunting is huge.

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