The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries released
the 2015-16 season harvest data for bear, deer, and turkey last week, and the
numbers check out well, continuing a stable trend upheld over the past decade.
Bear
The 2015-16 hunting season saw the second largest black bear
harvest in recorded Virginia history, with 2,331 animals harvested. Youth and
apprentice hunters took 110 of those over their designated weekend in October.
Despite the large harvest, this year’s number falls in line
with recent figures. Each year’s harvest after 2008 has exceeded 200 bears,
with the highest occurring in 2014, with 2,412 animals taken.
It’s worthy of note that 2015-16 marked the first season in
which a Virginia bear license was sold separately from the resident deer/turkey
license. The Department’s bear management staff reports 30,780 resident bear
licenses and 926 non-resident bear licenses being sold in its inaugural year,
and can draw no conclusions on the effect the new regulation had on the
season’s harvest numbers.
More so, mast production influences harvest numbers, and
2015’s was spotty at best. This often leads to an increase in bears taken in
the early season by bowhunters, when animals are more vulnerable to hunting
efforts as they concentrate on limited, available food sources.
Still, archers took an average proportion of the total
harvest in 2015-16, accounting for 24 percent, while those hunting with
firearms and muzzleloaders took a combined 71 percent. Sunday hunting continues
to have a minimal effect on the outcome of the harvest, and only accounted for
three percent of the total.
Deer
Hunters took a total of 209,197 deer in Virginia during the
2015-16 season—16,901 up from last year’s figure. Antlered deer composed
103,310 of the total, while button bucks accounted for 15,000, and antlerless
does, 90,887.
This year’s youth came out with 3,076 harvests. Bowhunters
claimed 15,078 (7 percent), crossbow hunters took 11,719 (6 percent), and
muzzleloader hunters took 42,517 (20 percent) of the total.
A stable or declining deer population has been expected over
the past decade, though the majority of the yearly fluctuation in harvest
numbers in that time—ranging from a low of 192,278 in 2014, to a high of
259,147 in 2009—has been attributed to variable mast productions and
Hemorrhagic
Disease flare-ups.
In that time, too, the Department has made a conscious
effort to increase the harvest of female deer throughout the state, namely on
private land, as a measure for reducing and stabilizing the overall deer herd,
as resolved by the current deer management plan.
Thus, hunters should anticipate a declining statewide deer
harvest in coming years.
Turkey
Commonwealth hunters bagged a total of 3,283 turkey during
the 2015-16 fall turkey season, up somewhat significantly from 2,988 in 2014-15,
suggesting a robust population.
However, other factors skew the relationship between harvest
and population size. Weather in late spring can influence successful
reproduction rates, stealing poults in the case of cold, wet weather. The hatch
rate fell just slightly below average (2.7 poults/hen) in the spring of 2015,
at 2.5 poults/hen.
Moreover, as is the case with the other big game species,
acorn availability significantly impacts harvest numbers. Years blessed with an
abundant mast spell hard times for hunters, as the turkey’s home range shrinks
due to the concentration of resources in the woods. Years with poor mast, such
as 2015, see turkey range wider, increasing their vulnerability to hunting
efforts. Likewise, in years with poor mast, hunters often find increased success
on private lands with more open field habitat, as birds range wider and resort
to alternative food sources.
Overall, the 2015-16 season reflects positivity for game
populations, though hunters can expect to see fewer deer in coming years, in an
effort to balance and stabilize the herd.
*Originally published in the Rural Virginian
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