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This is the time of year when Illinois motorists are being cautioned to watch out for deer on the roads, which leads some to ask whether extending the hunting season might thin out the herd and make fall driving a little safer.
But the problem is a little more complicated than that, officials with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources say.
For one thing, while many hunters are seeking the big "bucks," the payoff lies in the "doe," as far as reducing deer numbers goes.
Paul Shelton, the IDNR"™s forest wildlife program manager, said hunters already take about 200,000 of the estimated 800,000 deer in Illinois each year, meaning about 25 percent of the herd is harvested annually.
"What is more critical than what proportion of the total population is taken is how much of that is doe harvest," Shelton said. "That"™s how you control the deer population -- through taking does."
This year"™s deer season for firearms -- including handguns, muzzleloaders and shotguns -- runs from Nov. 17 through 19, and from Nov. 30 through Dec. 3. Another season for muzzeloading rifles only is from Dec. 8 through 10. There also is a late-winter antlerless deer season from Jan. 12 through 14.
Archery seasons run much longer, having started Oct. 1 and extending nearly uninterrupted into mid-January.
Extending the archery season probably would be "pointless," Shelton said.
"You"™re talking three-and-a-half months of hunting, with no limit on antlerless deer," he said. "If that"™s not going to get the job done for you, there"™s probably not a lot you could do to really increase the efficiency of that particular season."
Many might be surprised to know that the majority of the deer harvested in Illinois each year are taken by archers.
"And probably 80 percent of the harvest from archery comes from Oct. 1 until the first gun season, about a month-and-a-half in most places," Shelton said. "It really slows down after that."
And while some theorize that the hunting season itself is partly to blame for the increase in deer activity during the fall, which in turns leads to more deer-vehicle collisions, Shelton believes it"™s not that much of a factor.
"I would put very little importance on the hunting season contributing to (the number of deer-vehicle collisions)," he said.
Shelton blames the tendency for the graceful herbivores to wander onto roads during the fall on -- oh, deer -- raging hormones.
"As we approach this time of year, and the day length lessens, the period of light decreasing each day triggers a response in deer," he said. "It changes their hormone levels and triggers their reproductive urge.
"If you look at a bar graph of when deer-vehicle accidents happen, it coincides exactly with the peak of rutting activity and deer breeding. Deer become much more mobile. The bucks are running around, trying to find does and chasing them around. The amount of movement going on in the herd is greatly increased as a result. There is a lot more road-crossing going on.
"Also, the deer are a little less conscious and wary of what they"™re doing," Shelton said. "When they"™re running across the roads, they"™re paying even less attention than usual as to whether it"™s a safe thing to do."
steve_whitworth@thetelegraph.com
©The Telegraph2006
Yeah he's right about archery season slowing down after the first firearms season, that is exactly what got me to shotgun hunt last year. Seems every year just when the deer really start moving Walla!!! firearms season gets the peak of the rut. Why? they are capable of accuraccy out to 100yards + these days, why give them the best time to hunt deer up close? Bow hunters can almost give up after the orange army invasion. But I do have one suggestion for more doe harvests. Why not let unfilled bow tags roll over to firearms or at least late season firearms, doe-only tags?
Deer/Auto accidents
