The high percentage of your average hunter having the "brown it's down" attitude was mentioned in another thread. I checked to see if I could find some numbers for the 2001 Wi deer hunting season , to see just how high the percentage really is. To some , the following numbers might seem apalling , to others , it might seem that Wi is headed towards fewer "brown it's down" attitudes , but remember , the following numbers only represent a tiny percentage of harvested deer that were aged by DNR bioligists.

2001 Aging Results

Yearling Buck Percents (YB%’s)- The big story this year is that harvested YB%s are down substantially statewide compared to last year and relative to the 10-year average. The YB%’s in the south (56%), northwest (48%), and the northeast (51%) were down –23%, -19%, and –18%, respectively, relative to the 10-year average. The central forest, west central coulee country, and the east central farmland YB %’s were 58% (-13%), 65% (-13%), and 67% (-12) respectively.


Ordinarily, we'd suspect that recruitment was down, but this does not seem to be the case. Declining YB%’s statewide are long term trends over the past 10-20 years that reflect a longer term change in harvest dynamics and, to a certain extent, declines seen this year are also part of the long-term trend. Our best guess is that hunter selectivity and season timing are the mechanisms behind this year's declining percentages. This year's season seemed to coincide with the peak of the rut and weather conditions that were very poor for hunting. Anecdotal reports were that bucks were shot while pursuing does and that check stations were seeing a higher percentage of older bucks (2-3 yr olds). Moreover, this season followed a successful October Zone T and Zone T hunts the year before, making it less imperative for the hunter to put more venison into the freezer. Taken together, we believe that hunters were selectively waiting for older bucks and that rutting activities were making older bucks more vulnerable.

Yearling Doe Percents (YD%’s)- Harvested YD%’s were down as well this year relative to last year and relative to the 10-year average. Declines were small, however, and the absolute values for this year were well within the range considered normal and healthy for Wisconsin’s deer population. The YD%’s in the northwest (27%), northeast (29%), central forest (32%), west central coulee country (39%), east central farmland (39%), and the south (37%) were -8%, -3%, -4%, -8%, -2%, and –9% respectively relative to the 10-year average.

The farmland units declined the most, possibly because of reduced breeding among fawns during the 1999 season. Fawn breeding is relatively unimportant elsewhere. The fact that we're down relative to the 10-year averages is expected because the 1990’s were marked by a series of mild winters and an increase in artificial feeding. Therefore, recruitment during the 1990’s was likely elevated. Solid recruitment among does (YD%’s in the 27-39% range) suggests that the decline in yearling buck percentages is due to something other than depressed recruitment.


Off the topic , I also found out that Wisconsin sold deer hunting licenses to residents from all 50 states and 10 foreign countries<img src=icon_smile_shock.gif border=0 align=middle>

I thought that stat was pretty neat.