What’s up with the decrease in Wisconsin’s deer population?

I understand what you are saying but what I'm working with is the DNR's numbers not what people are seeing. There are too many factors on why people don't see deer and you could never count for every variable. Believe the numbers from the DNR or not there has been a decline in deer.

 

On a somewhat related note, I find it interesting that the approved statewide rifle use and the kill still was down 7%.

 

What do you think the reasons are Dan?

 

I know hard to believe the DNR about anything but I think there deer count is close but their wolf count may be a tad low. Let's just say that there is 500 wolves in Clark county instead of the 150, the dnr would catch so much grief from that and it would have to effect the economy with all the city folks heading to the north woods for the summer.

 

I 100000% agree that the wolf pops are probably 4x what they estimate them at. However, if the deer have decent habitat they can avoid the wolfs a lot better. Being in unsuitable habitat they are much easier prey.

Give the deer good habitat and they will thrive.

 

Wolf population is higher then we are lead to believe.
Over hunting the does.
Winter kill can count for a small portion
Spring fawn mortality rate with the bears coyotes and wolfs it's an easy meal.

There is plenty of logging going on by my place I don't believe that is a factor.

 

That's what we thought about our deer/elk/moose herds. We were also wrong.

 

Tell me more. What is happening out there?

 

More detail please

 

I hunt in Clark county right by Fairchild for a long time and my experience is that there are a lot more bears and wolves the past couple years than ever. Where I hunt, I hear wolves howling at night almost all the time. Almost every trail cam we put out, bears appeared in them most of the time.

 

You have to look at this as 2 different areas. North of hwy 29 and south.
North of hwy 29:1) More bear/wolves then the Dnr lets on to. You can't harvest 22% of any wild population in 14 days! The Dnr claim 840 wolves yet 240 were taken in 14 days? If the population is actual 3,000x20 deer/year=60,000 deer! 2) Too many antlerless tags issued for mainly public lands where the hunter has no vested future interest in herd population, filling any tag they can get. 3) The forest management practice of "Walden woods". Deer can't eat bark.

South of hwy 29- 1) Exploding herd again on mainly private lands where the owners manage for high dpsm. Waupaca was #1 again in total kill beating #2 marathon county with 1/2 the land mass. I did 7 all day sits last week and looked at 107 bucks. Antlerless? over 100/day.

Not to worry the Dnr thru the charade that is the DTR process will now maximize revenue in 2014 and unleash a toolbox of pain on the deer like we have never seen before. Either sex gun tags, xbows for all, multiple bonus bucks, telecheck so wives can become doe killin machines, ect.
We lose the public land gun hunter and we lose the sport.

 

Waupaca went rifle 2 years ago and nothing really changed. The same guys who blow off the dust on the slug throwing 870, never practice and can't hit a garbage can@50 yards are still doing the same. They did not go to Fleet and drop $500 on a scoped .270 and actually sighted it in.

The buck harvest was down 15% due to a) Brutal opening weekend weather b) the rut was well done. Sorry Charlie from DDH 3) More guys are passing immature bucks. I watched 2 mature 130 bucks not leave a 30 yard area all day while 70 baldies walked by, they never got up. The mature bucks were augered in and hunkered down last week. Deer drives are a memory now and only a #12 boot was going to move mature bucks last week.

 

PSE, I hear you talk about seeing all these does and that you believe there is a huge overpopulation by you, but I never hear you say you're shooting those does. If you actually are seeing 100 does a day and have the mindset that there are too many deer, why aren't you mowing them down?

 

We have taken 350 baldies off mainly 140 acres the last 10 years which the warden can verify. We took 9 last week and will take 10 more starting this Friday bringing our total this year to 35 again. I passed over 100 bucks last week and christened my new triumph bone collector ML by dropping doe. I have 2 teens with over 50 bow kills and north of 100 kills each. We have been doing intense EAB before the term was invented. I spend too much time and $$ each spring planting trees to watch them decimated and find winterkill in the spring. Sadly, it will take Bonus buck tags to get guys off the couch and start to dump antlerless.

Here's my 15 yo, self filmed. Bow, ML. pistol, shotgun. At the 5:15 mark there are 50 deer in my winter rye. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQE6EOLfKnQ

 

I find this weird. Almost all hunters I know, including myself, would get up off the couch to shoot a
doe. Maybe even miss my kids B-day party or my anniversary to do so. I guess my
life sucks.

 

I agree with PSE that you have to split the state into the north and south. I don't know anything about the south and only hunt the north, so that's all I can comment on.

One thing I have always said is, hunters have to stop blaming the DNR for all the problems and start taking some responsibility themselves. When the population was going down the last few years people had zero problem shooting every doe they saw. These same people are the ones who have been *****ing that the DNR is giving out too many doe tags. Just because they give you a gun, doesn't mean you have to shoot yourself in the foot people.

Predators are obviously another problem. Around our land in Rusk/Taylor Counties, fawn recruitment is low. But, I believe the bear population has come down over the last few years around us, as we don't have as many on camera when we bait for them as we used to. We also don't have much for wolves around us, as we're in between two packs and we only see a transient one once in awhile. I believe our biggest problem with fawn recruitment is bobcats. I believe the DNR has no clue how many bobcats are out there and their study has shown that bobcats are as big of a killer of fawns as bears are.

Now, with that said, I don't see a population problem around us. Yet. The deer population was way too high 10 years ago and was not sustainable. Unfortunately, hunters gauge a quality hunt on how many deer they see. The more the the merrier is not always better.

 

Believe me, I've heard you say this over and over. 35 does a year. But, in my mind, if you're seeing 100 does a day, you're not killing enough of them. Killing 9 in one week of gun season doesn't make a dent. Also, of those 107 bucks, how many were the same you saw multiple times? Just curious.

 

You are right that we have 2 separate areas but not separated by hwy 29. Those deer populations are like what I had back in 2005, too many for the land to hold but it made hunting fun. Here's a map of the wolf population and the area I am referring too.

 

So, apparently, you're blaming all the deer population problems in the north on the wolves Mater. That simply is not that case at all. Its much more than the wolves. But, its fun to blame it all on the wolves and not point a finger at ourselves for most of the problems.

 

Doe harvest- It's a never ending line waiting for a table. None of my farmer neighbors plant any food plots or have any thermal bedding. My winter rye/rape/ptt/fhr/pimpkins become the hometown buffet for a 2 mile radius. Kill 20 and 20 more show up. Ever try hunting mature bucks and take 35 doe as well? That's a difficult tight rope to walk. Not complaining but taking 35 doe/year is a lot of work.

Bucks- I could id the 5 mature bucks by type and score. The rest? Realistically I probably looked at 50 different bucks. I saw 16 at once opening day.