DON’T BELIVE WHAT YOU SEE

Deer hunters tend to rely heavily upon deer sightings to determine hunting prospects and potential hunting hot spots.

Researchers and managers also employ observational data to assess aspects of deer biology, such as relative abundance, adult sex ratios and fawn production. Deer managers use such data to set management regulations and evaluate management effectiveness. These determinations assume equal observability of sex and age classes of deer and that changes are indicative of real changes in population size and/or herd composition.

While researching material for my September 2008 Deer & Deer Hunting article regarding adult sex ratios, it became apparent that hunters and biologists often draw rather debatable conclusions based upon deer observational data of questionable value. Research shows, for example, that observability and flightiness of bucks, does and fawns can vary seasonally and according to a host of other factors. Hence, deer sightings may or may not accurately depict the status of the local deer population.

RESEARCH PROTOCOL

Researchers have followed various protocol to investigate deer observability and assess the accuracy of field counts used to determine deer abundance and aspects of herd composition.

Michael Zagata and Arnold Haugen reported on one of the earliest