Updates for deer hunters
September 24th, 2006 by Administrator
Deer hunters need to be aware of a few issues - both biological and bureaucratic - before they head to the woods this fall.Hunters are advised to pick up the instruction sheet that comes with deer-hunting tags purchased with the new point-of-sale system. The new tags don’t have as much printed information as in the past.“The point-of-sale system is a real handy system for selling the license, but it is a little more difficult for making the tags,” says Paul Shelton, forest wildlife program manager for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. “We are advising archery hunters when they buy an archery tag to be sure they pick up the information sheet there at the vendor.”
Shelton says the growth of interest in archery deer hunting has meant bowhunters are assuming a growing role when it comes to controlling the state’s deer herd.
“Our archery hunters, over the past 10 years, have become much more of a management force for us,” he says.
For the most part, hunters have done a good job taking does as well as bucks, Shelton says. But more work remains.
“There are areas that we need to address, and we still have a little ways to go,” he says.
No new regulations are in place this year, though.
“This year we have made a proposal to open up a few new counties for our late-winter season,” Shelton says. During the late-winter season, hunters are allowed to take only antlerless deer.
“There are a number of counties right around here that we would like to see opened up to help us with our doe harvest,” he says.
Hunters also should be aware that epizootic hemorrhagic disease has returned in some areas.
“One thing hunters may see if they are heading to the woods - if they haven’t been out setting up stands already - they may start finding some deer laying dead by creeks or ponds,” he says. “There are at least portions of the state where we have epizootic hemorrhagic disease, west-central and central Illinois particularly.”
Affected deer run a high temperature and tend to be congregated around water when they die, Shelton says.
“Anecdotally, we see this more frequently than we did in the past,” he says. “There was a time when we would get large epizootics but less frequently.”
Biting gnats spread the virus, but the outbreaks stop once freezing weather kills the insects.
“It is becoming endemic in certain areas, becoming par for the course in certain areas,” he says. “As (outbreaks) become more common, they also become more spotty as far as the impact.”
EHD doesn’t kill large numbers of deer on a landscape scale, but locally - on a particular property or watershed - the losses can seem heavy.
One landowner may find several dead deer, while a neighbor living a quarter mile away notices few effects, Shelton says.
Dead deer have been tested to confirm the disease’s presence.
“We know that’s what it is and that it’s out there.”