Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum State Wide Deer Harvest

Are you trying to infer that CWD is killing off large numbers of our deer??????????????????????????????

I’m trying to infer that it may have just started killing off 10-25% in some of the northwestern counties and that it isnt sustainable like that for very long…..The significant drops in this specific area coincide with the first positive detections that we have found for CWD……There is the off chance that some of it is due to a change in hunter behavior in these counties knowing that it was in neighboring MS but if you look at globe’s comments for example about Lamar Co, it wouldn’t seem that very many people are too alarmed about it just yet.

Look at the numbers for Lamar Co for example……That county went from killing 3,744 to 2,770 in one season. Marion went from 3,901 to 2,969……..In comparison Bullock went from 3,986 to 3,960……..Coosa 3,320 to 3267…….”Weather” didn’t just disproportionately effect Lamar and Marion and these other northwestern counties that much from all the rest of the state. How many years can you sustain a reduction of that rate if it’s being caused due to disease taxing the herd an additional 10-20% each year???......Even one more year would be substantial……. …….That should raise big red flags because its not likely that hunters in only those northwestern counties alone chose to have that drastic of an attitude difference in trigger restraint from the rest of the state…..That is what the other survey we took a while back is meant to confirm though.

Lower kill rates should result in higher deer numbers. Next year should be good, if this is accurate. You should be happy about folks killing less deer.

What I’m really hollering here abolt is that we actually have the ability to see this coming right now before it sweeps across the blackbelt and the rest of the state…..We have the ability to see this and adjust “hunter behavior” before we impact the herd so badly…..The only problem is that it may really skew the GC numbers next year and actually make the data show the problem as getting real bad when we do….. What I’m saying is that when you weigh and balance the options here…..Would you rather skew the numbers that live in ether or skew the actual deer that live in the woods???.......The best route in my mind is for everyone to recognize what’s coming and show voluntary restraint in response. The biggest hurdle will be getting folks who think they have it great to recognize the possible impending Tsunami.

On a side note I think you could probably look at the change in buck harvest totals as compared to the change in doe harvest to see help see how much is coming from hunter restraint and how much is coming from population decrease. People are more likely still gonna fill those buck tags just the same if they have the chance…..Buck harvest numbers are more influenced by the number of “opportunities”.

I can assure you that 25% of the herd in those northern counties did not die off from CWD in the last 12 months. If that was the case, there would have had thousands of positives in the three county area where they were actively checking and there would have been additional cases showing up in all the testing being done in surrounding counties if it was that prevalent. People would've been reporting seeing sick deer left and right. So explain to me where all these positive tests are? I havent heard a peep out of the state about it since all the additional testing began and those first two bucks tested positive for it. You'd think if it was a huge issue, we would all have heard about it and it would be all over the news. You're barking up the wrong tree on why the numbers changed. Matt B can chime in as I am sure he knows exactly how many positives showed up out of all the additional testing that was done.

if anything, it is the "free for all " all season doe harvest throughout the state finally catching up to us. You cant kill every other doe you see, every year, year after year, and not begin to see the effects.

What if the initial die off occurred during the spring and summer months?? There's a blatant pattern in the data.

Then people would have seen and reported sick deer all spring and summer that looked emaciated, walking/staggering around. They dont get CWD and immediately die. I've seen pics from other states of deer staggering around, that are nothing but skin and bones. CWD is a long drawn out illness and it might take years for prion buildup to get to the point where a deer is exhibiting actual symptoms. Once again, it would have shown up in all the extra testing going on in those counties. If something happened in the spring and early summer, turkey hunters would have reported finding an inordinate amount of dead deer as they chased pine chickens all over the woods. I cover way way more ground and landscape turkey hunting in one weekend than I do in a month of deer hunting as do all the good turkey hunters I know and Im sure there are more than a few serious turkey hunters in that part of the state. Face it. It simply has not happened.

I wonder how Many gonna be bought.

How long do you suppose a deer is gonna wander and stagger around the woods emaciated with healthy populations of coyotes present??.....I know what I’ve seen and deer go from losing a step to being a pile of coyote chit in just a matter of about 24-48 hrs.

All of this “Overthinking” in this thread makes wonder how nice it must be to have enough free time to overcomplicate something as simple as deer hunting. Lol

This year had a bumper acorn crop. Everything I have read says the number of deer killed in those years is less than in years where the acorns aren't as plentiful. I still think the problem is the limit. A doe a day, but only 3 bucks? There is no effective way to police the buck law. So only those of us who follow the law actually comply with it.

Now if they jacked the fine up to say $2,500 for a first offense, that might help.

I also agree with CNC, I doubt you would see a deer stagger around long with all the Yotes in Alabama. I shot a deer in Bibb County, and when I tracked it, it jumped and ran off, and I couldn't follow it, so I went and got help. By the time we found it 45 minutes later, Yotes had already been eating on it.

Game check is about trends. What I see makes me believe we need to ease off the doe's for a few years.

CNC, CWD is not prevalent enough to have ANY impact on the deer population in north AL. The state has been sampling for years. If it was causing die offs people would know.

When EHD outbreaks kill 10-15% of a population people find dead deer everywhere and report staggering deer around residences and highways.

CWD has nothing to do with those harvest numbers.

The state as a whole is killing less does than bucks even though there’s a limit on bucks and not on does. I don’t see where the lack of a limit is the issue. The issue is the few people in the state that have population issues will not limit the kills with out the state telling them to do so.

Lockjaw how many does and how many bucks were killed off your 1000 acre club?

This, yes.

This year, 3 bucks, one being a knot head mistaken for a doe, and 5 doe's. Last year, I know of 3 bucks and maybe 6 doe's. The year before I only know about 2 bucks and 2 doe's. I feel good about last year and I kept the records this year so those are correct. I have passed multiple doe's every year since I joined this club, mainly to try to pattern them so I could get my son's in a place to shoot them.

I just had a board meeting and we cut the limit from 5 down to 2 for a member, and only 1 instead of 2 for each child. And eliminated the spousal limits. So the married adults can shoot 3 bucks and 2 doe's, and each child can shoot 1 of each. Thats about as drastic as I think we can get away with in 1 year. Me and one of the board members are going to do a camera survey and see what we got after turkey season. I have directions from the DMAP program on the proper way to do that.

I am the person this impacts the most, if I am being honest. With the amount of time I spend out there in the off season planting and spraying and knocking around, it would be easy for me to kill 5 or 6 doe's a year. But I haven't been doing that.

And we said no shooting doe's off greenfields.

Check out the first two maps.........Those would overlay nicely

https://www.wtok.com/2021/09/09/alabama-mississippi-had-top-2-wettest-summer-ever/

So with that correlation looking like a dead match and with the rainfall amounts being 100 year extremes…….couldnt you take away from this that changes in annual harvest rates due to excess annual rainfall are in the extreme range with a 17-25% decline…..In other words, moving forward when we talk about what is a “normal” amount of variation in the numbers due to changes in annual rainfall….we have sort of a measuring stick here as to what is “a lot” now......

Actually, you would need to look back on 2020’s rainfall totals to see how much they deviated from the norm……If they ran pretty normal in the northwest corner then we could likely say that this 15-25% range is what can be expected in an extreme year. If though, 2020’s rain totals were a drought for example…..then this level of change is being exaggerated and “normal” fluctuation will be less……It’s amazing to me how accurately that effected things across the board…..Do you think knowing this now we could just try harder in wet years and change the outcome???