Maine Preliminary 2009 Deer Harvest Numbers Released

*Editor’s Note* Below is a press release sent to me by MDIFW. It took 2 months to tally an “initial” harvest number of 18,045 deer, a 14% decrease from the abysmal year of 2008 of 21,061. 2007 saw 28,884 deer taken; 2006 was 29,918; 2005 a harvest of 28,148; 2004 at 30,926. A twenty year history prior to 2006 saw an average of 28,700 deer taken each season.

This brief report does not tell us information about harvest according to WMDs. The press release blames severe winters and poor hunting conditions for the decline,in harvest numbers, in addition to a reduction of “Any-Deer Permits”.

AUGUSTA, Maine – Preliminary deer harvest numbers show a decrease of 14% from the 2008 harvest with an initial tally of 18,045 deer taken by hunters.

“To put this into perspective, we must consider that the 2008 and 2009 winters represent the most severe back-to-back winters since 1971-72,” according to IF&W Deer Biologist Lee Kantar.

Long winters with deep snows have a tremendous impact on the overwinter survival of deer. Both expected regional declines in deer abundance and adverse hunting conditions — two weeks of poor hunting conditions during the firearms season — played a role in the fall 2009 harvest decline. Decreases in the deer harvest from 2008 also were expected given the 16% decrease in any-deer permits for Maine’s hunters (reducing overall success rates). The reductions in any-deer permits for 2009 were necessary to allow the deer herd to begin to recover.

Relative to adjacent provincial and state jurisdictions, the decline in Maine’s deer harvest was less in comparison to our Canadian neighbors in Quebec and New Brunswick whose deer harvests declined greater than 30% during the same time period, but was greater than the decline in New Hampshire’s deer harvest (decrease of approximately 5%).

For 2009, Department biologists projected a statewide harvest of approximately 19,289 deer. The annual deer harvest projections by department biologists in the late spring result from an analysis of mortality and reproductive rates, harvest trends, and any deer permit allocations to meet Wildlife Management District (WMD) goals and objectives. Thus our initial number for statewide harvest was 6% less than projected.

Over the next few weeks, department biologists will complete a more detailed analysis of the 2009 harvest and will release the final deer harvest number and further details about how the harvest looked by season, WMD, sex and age.