Hunters killed 261,093 whitetail deer during Wisconsin’s nine-day gun deer-hunting season, which ended Sunday. The deer-kill number is down 10 percent in the first year since the discovery of Chronic Wasting Disease in the state’s deer herd.
The decrease in number of deer killed is consistent with a 10 percent drop from last year in gun-hunting licenses.
“We had a good season,” said Scott Craven, professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin.
Craven has worked closely with the Department of Natural Resources on CWD and other aspects of deer management.
“The weather was cooperative, and given the concern of CWD, I’m glad we had as many people out as we did.”
The Department of Natural Resources found 41 deer in the Mount Horeb area that tested positive for the disease as well as two deer on two private game farms.
“The fundamental plan in effect right now is the mass sampling of deer harvested along with herd reduction in and out of the eradication zone,” Craven said.
Craven said the number of deer harvested and the results of CWD analysis would determine the next step in the management program.
“If the bulk of the state comes back clean, then we can focus on the eradication zone, but if there’s a widespread infection, then it’s back to the drawing board. A statewide infection is something I don’t think anyone has planned for,” Craven said.
Craven said if the bulk of the state’s herd was CWD free, then hunter participation would probably return to normal.
Craven said the low numbers “could cause the rest of the state to continue to experience high population numbers.”
The DNR estimated the deer herd to be 1.6 million before the opening of the nine-day season on Nov. 23 and had hoped hunters would kill between 450,000 and 500,000 deer to prevent further growth in the population.
A large herd could keep up deer-automobile collisions, damage farmers’ crops and disrupt the state’s ecology.
“As a primary or ‘keystone’ herbivore, deer can virtually eliminate wildflowers and disrupt tree regeneration, and those things go down the ladder to have a greater ecological impact,” Craven said.
Farmers have become increasingly concerned about the depletion of crops due to large deer herds.
“Looking around, there [are] substantial crop decreases going on,” said Richard Bishop, chairman of the applied and agriculture economic department at UW.
“The deer population is centered in the south of the state where there is a lot of agriculture, so they’re in close contact with each other,” Bishop said.
Bishop said a decrease in kills during the hunting season combined with a mild winter could mean an even larger herd of deer damaging crops and causing car accidents by next year.
