ORIGINAL: buttonbuckmaster
I'll preface this with some numbers from the IL firearm first season. Statewide totals were down what, 15K from last year. Only one county had the same amount of deer harvested (exactly the same) all other counties were down. The archery harvest (up to the firearm season) was down over 3K from this time last year. I know my deer sightings went down alot from years past. EHD took a toll on deer numbers in my area in 2007, yet the harvest totals were up last year over previous years?[&:] Is the "brown its down" on every doe mentality starting to affect the deer numbers? Fewer hunters = fewer kills? I'm not sure what the answer is? Is this all over the midwest or something thats been limited to IL this year? Your thoughts?
Most things in life usually have more than one cause.
EHD is definately part of Illinois numbers.
And we midwesterners had a tough winter last year. Snowfalls just about everywhere north of Springfield, Illinois pushed 100" and much more.
We also have a yote problem across much of the state. Last spring while shed hunting I came across no less than 10 deer taken by the yotes. When that snow gets deep.. those whitetail can get into trouble real quick when a pack is around.
CWD should not be forgotten either.
Lot's of reasons for deer populations to be suffereing some.