ORIGINAL: bluebird2
This is what the PGC had to say about the results of the doe mortality study.
To better understand hunter behavior and its influence on female harvest rates, we conducted a survey of Deer Management Assistance Program permit recipients on the Sproul and Tuscarora State Forests. Survey results indicated hunters may be less likely to harvest an antlerless deer wearing a radio collar. As a result, observed harvest rates of radio-collared females may not accurately reflect antlerless harvest rates
Also note that the study began in 2005 after the herd had been reduced and hunting pressure was lower and many hunters may have been reluctant to harvest a doe after seeing so few deer.
What Deaddeer is trying to rationalize here is the part of the study that found that only 8% of the does were killed by hunters and a mere 15% the next year.
So much for the idea that the concurrent seasons and doe allocations are the cause of the population decline in the big woods!