2011 deer and bear harvest update

[LanceR]

I copied and pasted the body of a message from Jeremy Hurst the senior big game biologist in the NYSDEC.

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Lance

The message follows:

NY Big Game,

This weekend brings the final days of deer hunting in the Northern Zone and the final days of the Southern Zone regular seasons.  Muzzleloader and late bow seasons for deer and bear in the Southern Zone will begin Monday, Dec. 12 and continue through Tuesday, Dec. 20. 

It has been an interesting season with generally mild conditions all around, but now with a little snow finally on the ground in many upstate areas, this weekend could be productive for a lot of hunters.  Of course, you can't fill your tags if you're not in the woods.

As it stands now, deer harvest reports seem to be on par with last year at this time.  We started out with reported deer take through mid-November running about 5% less than last year.  Then reports during the first week of the Southern Zone regular season were slow, near 20% less than the opening week in 2010.  But hunters did well Thanksgiving week, and currently reports are tracking very close to reported take in 2010.  At this point, we are just tracking harvest reports and aren't yet calculating the total harvest.  That will come after the January deer season closes on Long Island and after we review all the data from our field checks of harvested deer.
 
For bears, this season has shaped up to be quite different from last year, with preliminary harvests down in the Northern Zone but at record levels in the Southern Zone.  Bear hunting was expanded into eastern New York this year, with the newly opened area spanning from Westchester County to Washington County.  Hunters in the new areas have taken over 40 bears so far.  Even without these additional bears, the preliminary take in southeastern New York (DEC Regions 3 and 4) looks like it could be one of the top harvests.  In central and western New York (DEC Regions 7, 8, and 9), we're on track to top 300 bears, which will shatter the previous record of 189 bears taken in 2008. 

If you get out this weekend, enjoy and hunt safely.  Otherwise, the Southern Zone muzzleloader season runs through December 20, and bowhunting continues in Westchester and Suffolk counties till December 31.  Finally, the special firearms deer season in Suffolk County runs weekdays, January 9-31 (see www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/40409.html for details).

Good hunting.

Jeremy Hurst

Big Game Biologist

 

 

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[DANNY-L]

I think for the most part these biologist tend to tell hunters what they want to hear. There is no way it even came close to the 2010 take here in the n.zone. They need to do away with dmp's for awhile and nuisance permits should not be issued as long as there are hunters willing to help the land owners.  I also think we should be allowed to help the deer herd through the winter by opening up the feeding law,with restrictions due to roadways of course.

[tscott]

The Saturday opener has been a miserable failure in getting more in the field. For every 55 new hunters NY loses 100... This is big money and what drives the DEC.... The take is down because of fewer hunters... $100 plus Sportsmans license will be soon! I wonder if the Youth / Senior / Early primitive muzzy season is back on the table for 2012... I'll bet that if it is, the DEC won't soliciit further comment... They got to do something, to get revenue up!!!

[mspaci]

I think some of the problem is that many of the hunters didnt adjust to what was happening out there this year. The feeding patters were different, no acorns. Many of my traditional spots didnt pay off, but when I found them, there were many of them. As little as a few hundred yards made all the difference. At first I thought sitting fields might pay off as it did 7-8 years ago when this happened, but I ended up in small woodlots between fields for all the action. I also found a few beechnut stands that had deer coming to them. Thats what happened in my area. Mike

[Chenango]

I agree with mspaci, our hunting party found the deer we got (2 doe and 1 buck) in the small woodlots between fields and old apple orchards which had an abundance of apples this year. We hunt area 7m near Greene and we also had to change our strategy to abandon our long time successful hunting stands after a few days afield. Deer were mostly seen at 10 am , 1pm and at dusk and they were hitting the beechnut stands due to no acorns and heading out to corn fields well after dark.