Here are the number of collared deer that died this past season:

Since the beginning of bow season in October, we had 18 hunter-related mortalities and zero natural mortalities. The observed mortalities included legal harvests (13), illegal harvests (4), and an unknown harvest (1). A mortality was considered a “legal harvest” if it was known to have occurred by legal methods during legal season dates. A mortality was considered an “illegal harvest” if the harvest was known to have occurred outside the legal season dates or in an area where the hunter was not authorized to hunt (i.e. safety zone or private property). We had 1 “unknown harvest” which could have occurred by legal means, however the deer was not checked in and the collar was found cut and lying in the woods, which might also imply illegality.

Of these mortalities, 8 were bucks and 10 were does. Harvested bucks ranged in age from 2.5-4.5 years-old and harvested does ranged from 2.5-6.5+ years-old, which is fairly representative of the sex and age distribution we had collared and available for harvest. Looking at the harvests by study site, 4 occurred at Barbour WMA, 6 were at Oakmulgee WMA, 4 in Marengo County, and 4 in Pickens County.