Myself (and other members of the Crabtree clan) as well as other highly dedicated and motivated private wildlife manager (that also happen to be bowhunters) will use a suite of population estimating tools to establish local populations of deer to help us establish population densities and to set management goals. If you’re the sort of hard core, hunter manager that likes to take it to the next level, you are no doubt keeping a keen eye on the local herd as you increase your knowledge of population dynamics. Based on the time of year, the methods we private wildlife managers use range from high impact methods such as personally infiltrating deer habitat to access deer numbers and their habitat (although this comes at a cost of disruption and scent concerns pressuring the deer) to lower impact and less intrusive methods like using trail cameras to even less disruptive and intrusive methods such as shinning deer at night. In agricultural areas, shinning is an incredibly valuable tool for private wildlife managers from fawn counts in the spring to buck to doe ratios during the rut. Since deer have no fear of lights spotlighting is a low impact means of monitoring the herd, Can be done quickly and cover large areas in little time, this method is the least intrusive or disruptive. There is a great deal to be gleaned from and a lot of positives associated with this method of deer monitoring. These methods are not only used to keep tabs on population dynamics but myself and the rest of the Crabtree clan find them useful tools when it comes time to set our goals for herd reduction and then again as scouting methods to establish deer concentrations as it relates to food sources and even to help setup hunting strategies. IF you’re a serious hunter/wildlife manager, you no doubt use a host of surveillance and population estimating tools. In all cases, make sure to follow local laws and be respectful of those around you. Some states use shinning counts as one of their methods of establishing deer densities. Attached is a bowhunting observation vs shinning study conducted in NY that private resource managers might find interesting. It was conducted by WINCHCOMBE and OSTFELD from the Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, NY. http://www.ecostudies.org/reprints/Winchcombe_and_Ostfeld_2001_Northeast_Wildlife_56_39-48.pdf Shinning will on occasion raise rancor between hunters. Its easy to spot those that are casual hunters vs serious hunters vs serious private resource managers. If your serious about maximizing your knowledge of local herds and being a better resource manager and hunter, don’t miss this opportunity to maximize your suite of management tools and most of all don’t begrudge those hard core hunter/managers that are. If its not legal in your state, its a method that you wont be able to take advantage of. Where legal, its another tool for the serious private wildlife manager/hunter. Here is a study titled Whitetailed deer population censusing through pellet counts and spotlighting surveys By Allen and Solchick from the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame and Purdue University IN http://www.nd.edu/~underc/east/educ...usingthroughpelletcountsandspotlightingsu.pdf Another report on using spotlighting as a resource management tool from VA http://mms.nps.gov/shen/ncr/docs/factsheets/SHEN_NR_071_Spotlight_Deer_Survey_BM.pdf From TX http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_bk_w7000_0083.pdf OR http://theworldlink.com/sports/outdoors/article_d9e71fd0-6269-11e0-bbe1-001cc4c03286.html
