Deer Management: 1999

Dr. Dave Samuel is a retired wildlife scientist from Morgantown, West Virginia.

Wildlife scientists are learning more and more about our favorite deer.

IT WASN'T MANY years ago when hunters in some parts of the country saw few deer and were happy to harvest any legal animal. Things have changed. Today hunters complain if they don't see 20 to 30 deer in a day of hunting, and their interest in harvesting bigger, mature bucks is growing. During this time of deer population growth, whitetail deer biologists from across the country meet annually to discuss the hot topics in deer research and management. This year the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission hosted the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Southeast Deer Study Group in February in Fayetteville. Each year I represent Bowhunter at this meeting to keep you, our readers, up-to-date on the latest happenings in the world of the whitetail. Here are some of the latest findings in whitetail research and management.

Quality Deer Management (QDM)

No topic is hotter than QDM. Bring hunters and biologists together, and QDM comes to the table. QDM is most heavily practiced in the Southeast, but today hunters and game managers from all over the country have a growing interest in this management concept . Thus, it is no surprise that several QDM presentations were made at the Deer Study Group meeting.

One obvious question was discussed: Will hunters support QDM? Seems like they will in Arkansas. Biologists there found that 71 percent of hunters would give up the opportunity to shoot a smaller buck in one year if they might have the chance to shoot a larger buck the next year. Sixty-two percent of the Arkansas hunters supported either of two strategies: 1) shooting any buck for their first buck, but having to shoot a buck with four points on one antler for their second buck, 2) shooting only one buck with a gun. On the other hand, hunters did not support: 1) quota buck permits, 2) reduced hunting days, and 3) a reduced buck limit. Obviously hunters will not support QDM if it doesn't work. Let's consider some studies that show the positive benefits of QDM and answer some questions.

Value of QDM

In 1987 the Anderson Tully Company (ATCO) based in Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana decided to manage deer on all their lands using QDM. From 1987 to 1997 deer harvest numbers remained constant, with an average of one deer harvested per 54 acres. During that period, buck harvest dropped slightly and doe harvest increased. Though fewer bucks were taken, buck size actually increased. Forty percent of the bucks killed in 1987 were 2.5 years and older, but this jumped to 81 percent in 1997! Over that same 10 years, not only did the average age of bucks increase from 2.1 to 2.8 years, but live weights went from 136 to 163 pounds, and antler quality increased by 55 percent. Obviously QDM is alive and well on Anderson Tully timbered lands.

International Paper Company began a QDM program in Alabama in 1990 with 11 hunting clubs in the program. By 1997 there were 37. During that time the percent of 2.5-year-old and older bucks increased by 20 percent. Hunt club member support for QDM jumped from 50 percent to 73 percent. On another Arkansas site with nine hunting clubs participating, QDM led to a doe harvest increase of 50 percent (from one doe per three bucks harvested to one to one). Antler size doubled from 1991 to 1997.

Hunter support for QDM was 77 percent. In another study, Mark Thomas and Pat Minogue reported that from 1985 to 1991, hunters harvested 124 bucks, mostly spikes and forkhorns, on a 3,350-acre tract in Alabama. Then QDM was implemented, and from 1991 to 1997, hunters harvested 58, all of which had eight points or better. Although buck harvest decreased under QDM, total harvest was about the same. Over the full 12 years of the study, hunters killed 894 does, 182 bucks. Thus, we have good evidence that QDM works on private clubs, but...

QDM On Public Lands

The jury is still out on this one, but at least three southeastern states have made changes that lean toward QDM. Arkansas now has a mandatory three-point rule. Mississippi has a four-point antler restriction. And in 1994 Florida changed from a 1-inch antler restriction to a 5inch restriction. That Florida change led to an increase in the average age of harvested bucks from 2.2 to 2.4 years of age.

For a major test of whether QDM can work on public lands, let's look at Georgia. There, the Department of Natural Resources has attempted QDM on several state wildlife management areas. Biologist Kent Kammermeyer compared data from 13 public and private areas. He looked at public areas with food plots, private leases with food plots, and private leases without food plots. His findings are very interesting. It appears that hunters on private leases better understand the prerequisites to making QDM work (harvest more does, pass up shooting small bucks, don't harvest button bucks). Kammermeyer found that hunters on private lands were more likely to harvest more does. On the positive side was the fact that the kill of button bucks was the same on public and private lands. Finally, Kammermeyer found that quality bucks were harvested at the highest rate on private lands with food plots. This may reflect the fact that private lease hunting clubs that take the time and expense to create good forage plots for their d eer, may have a higher interest in the success of a QDM program. Thus, they may work harder to make it happen, and this is reflected in the results. Kammermeyer concluded that small private clubs with a committed membership and good food plots produced more quality bucks than the public wildlife management areas. Maybe QDM can work on public lands, but in Georgia it has worked better on private hunting clubs.

Storms and Mortality

Other papers addressed the impacts of storms on deer. The 1993 Mississippi River flood was a disaster for folks along the river. But it also seriously affected deer. Tim Evans, Mike Staten, and Stan Priest of Anderson Tully Company, and Larry Savage of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, presented data that confirmed that normal spring floods do not cause problems, but late summer floods, even if moderate, are very hard on fawns. They also showed that buck harvest is a poor measure of fawn survival because, in the absence of yearling bucks due to fawn mortality the previous year, hunters shift pressure to other age classes. Another paper presented showed that Hurricane Georges, which hit southern Florida on September 26, 1998, had little negative impact on Key deer. In fact, the storm probably benefited the deer by opening the overstory canopy.

Urban Deer Problems

Attempting to manage deer in urban areas is a growing concern because of public safety and damage to plants. Researchers from Southern Illinois University, the University of Missouri, and the Minnesota DNR looked at deer movements in and around a large urban park in Bloomington, Minnesota. They found that home ranges of urban deer were smaller than those of rural deer. Does selected areas with woody cover, but in the winter they avoided the pubic park and moved to residential sites. Apparently spending the winter around suburban houses provided better food and warmer conditions. Deer do not make many friends when they eat expensive shrubs and yard plantings in the winter, but that is apparently what is happening.

In Lynchburg, Virginia, a city of 66,000, sharpshooters hired by the city killed 1,317 deer from March 1992 to July 1998. Labor costs to kill deer were $71.50 per deer. Deer-vehicle collisions declined significantly, and the public supported the management approach.

However, in some cases the public can oppose shooting programs. At Sea Pines, a 5,300-acre resort community on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, an effort to conduct research by the University of Georgia (research that would have involved killing some deer) led to the filing of a lawsuit against the University, the South Carolina DNR, and Sea Pines, by five local, state, and national animal-rights groups. A temporary restraining order prevented the South Carolina DNR from issuing scientific collecting permits to kill deer, a sign of the times when minority voices take away the will of the majority.

Howard Kilpatrick, with the Connecticut Wildlife Division, is conducting work on bowhunting in urban areas. He and coworkers radio-collared 25 does living in a residential community and followed them for several years to see where they lived during the fall bow season (Oct. 1 to Dec. 31), the late bow season (Jan. 15 to Feb. 15), and the sharp-shooting period (Feb. 16 to Mar. 18). The researchers found that bowhunting in the fall season could help 43 percent of homeowners, while bowhunting in the late season could help 69 percent. "Our results suggest that increased access to deer in the community during the late archery season may increase bowhunting success and homeowner satisfaction, and that sharp-shooting in the community would be most effective at night." Nice to see some state agency personnel promoting bowhunting as a cost-effective solution to the urban deer problem.

As you can see, this annual meeting covers a lot of ground. I hope you enjoyed this summary. I look forward to updating you on deer management in the year 2000.

COPYRIGHT 1999 PRIMEDIA Special Interest Publications
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