GMMAT

Is our role anything other than large-scale herd management? How do you think the individual states view our role? In this manner? Do they look at the needs of the hunting community to hunt.....OR...is total (state) herd management their focus?

If left un-checked (all hunting removed).....what do you think would happen to the herd in your state? Be realistic.

rookie51

I think the fact that my county is in an urban deer zone and we get three extra tags is proof that part of our job is herd management. As for me i try not to think about that when i am hunting, i dont want what i harvest to be a statistic, i want it to bea trophy for the time and work i put into it. My good friend (stealthhunter22) did his senior paper about the neccesity of hunting acrossed america. It was obvios after the research that we play a crucial rule in the well being of this species. I am not sure of what would happen excatly to my state but it would be terrible.

GMMAT

Before hunters were introduced.....lets just say the area west of the mississippi prior to the gold rush.

What do you think the herd dynamics were like? Were they "healthy"?

I think I was misunderstood in another thread. I KNOW our role plays a large part in the management of these animals.....but....left un-checked by us....they would survive just fine (over time).

mauser06

in most states, they try to break the state into units and use hunters to aid in population management...far from micro management(ie private farm) but better than say 1mill tags for the whole state. units with low population get less tags, higher that they want to lower get more.

if left unchecked, and noone killed them, hunters, sharpshooters anything, nature takes over. nature is cruel, but when things get out of hand at the very least, starvation will set in. if starvation dont do them in, disease surely will. not to mention vehicle accidents

hunters are just a part of wildlife management..1 form of population management. sometimes hunters are the answer...others they arent. i can see it coming in PA. more and more sharp shooters are being hired because people wont let us in to hunt. they will let sharp shooters come in, but not hunters, that will USE the harvest...hunters cant control numbers in areas they cannot hunt....just 1 example of how hunters arent ALWAYS the answer...

read "desert solitare" a couple semesters ago. theres a chapter in there about hunting the predators to extinction in the west so the muleys could thrive. found out that wasnt the case...hunters couldnt keep up..nature takes over.

goherd1111

I took this quote from the "hunting facts" section of Huntingnet.com under the rescources tab at the top of the page. What does this tell you about what could happen to the deer herd if left unmanaged.

"Under optimal conditions without regulating factors like predators or hunting, deer populations can double in size annually."

Mizzouhunter

If hunting wasn't allowed, the herd in Missouri would grow to a staggering number.After a few thousand collisions, the non-hunters in Missouri would be begging the Department of Conservation to reinstate hunting. After having the deer devaste crops, farmers would beready to hunt again. It is always interesting to consider the carrying capacity of a state. Just how many deer could Missouri sustain? I have no idea.

As to the role of hunters, I think we areused as a large-scale herd management system. It doesn't seem to really be about the hunter.For example, setting seasons and bag limits illustrate that it isn't about the hunter. It is about the successful management of wildlife. Deer and turkey huntinghasn't always been allowed (when game was much more scarce) and bag limits weren't as liberal as they are today. To me, that shows that it is more about the management aspect as opposed to a right to hunt. And I don't feel that there is anything particularly wrong with that.

But, then again,maybe thepoint of managing wildlife is to have a viable hunting population to serve the needs of the hunting community. Guess I see both sides.

brucelanthier

herd management is not just killing to keep the numbers in check, it is also recognizing that there has been to much killing and stopping, or that a herd is unbalanced so that there is selective killing, etc. If you recall, herd management brought the whitetail back from some seriously decimated numbers to what it is today.

I do agree that if left alone the herds would reach carrying capacity, up or down, and survive just fine.

Before hunters were introduced? would that include native americans . I think before mass hunting was introduced (how many buffalo could one buffalo hunter kill in one day?) herd dynamics were healthy.

RHanbaum

Basically we are herd management and a source of revenue for our states. If harvest numbers are correct and the estimated "poaching" figures are calculated, the give out quotas. However, I live near Crab Orchard Lake which is a major flyway for waterfolwlers and a tremendous amount of revenue is generated by those hunters, but here in the Republic of Illinois, they have tried to stop all waterfowl hunting the past couple of years but have failed due to the rise up of outdoorsmen. If left unchecked, the over population of animals would lead to a catastophic failure of our critters and lifestyle as we know it. The antis don't see it that way. of course PETA to me is People for the Eating of Tasty Animals!!!

GR8atta2d

WellI think you and Mobo both have points (in other post). However, you are looking at areas and times before man, crept in and built up the land. In these instances yes I believe the herd and naturewill "take care of itself".

However we (most of us) are not in THAT enviroment. We hunt deer in urban niches..developed areas..some wildlife areas set aside for that purpose. If left unchecked the damages to property andcar/deer collisions etcwould be out of control. The herd would suffer die-off due to disease, starvation..in some areas (like the park Mobo mentions and some I've seen around Columbus Ohio) would be overrun.
Sure as an average nationally perhaps the numbers would remain constant. But State by State there would be huge swings!

I don't thinks you can Compare Dans Herd or Sheds Herd or Daniel Boones herd..to My Herd or your Herd..they are different animals dealing with mass predatation and huge vast forest regions.

farmcntry

I don't think (JMHO) that a hunter's role has anything to do with herd management at all. Nature could easily take care of that.