I was just reading an article about how the Pennsylvania Game Commission was intending to lease a tract of land on a game preserve in order to open it up to bow hunting. As is a common practice these days, communities and game officials, employ bow hunters to reduce overgrown deer populations in certain areas.
In this particular article, it is not clear whether this is the case for this one game preserve but as you can imagine, there is opposition to it.
The writer of the article claims that two Pennsylvania Game Commission officers, at a press conference, told reporters that hunting doesn’t reduce deer population, it increases it.
Two Game Commission officers appeared at the press conference. The Game Commission officers later told reporters that hunting does not reduce the number of deer; it increases it so there are more — and bigger deer for trophies — for hunters to kill the next year.
It is ironic in many ways that this report comes out of Pennsylvania, a state that is mired in much controversy over the handling of the whitetail deer population by the Game Commission. Briefly, Pennsylvania is in the middle of a giant deer population reduction program because scientists there believe there are far more deer than is recommended to maintain a healthy herd. According to reports, the forest vegetation is being ransacked and destroyed having negative effects on other wildlife.
Talk to hunters across the state and you’ll find differing opinions on whether reducing the herd is the right thing to do. According to game officials and many deer hunters, they have succeeded quite nicely in knocking down numbers in several areas mostly affected. Some hunters are complaining vehemently that there are no deer left.
So, how did they do that? You guessed it! Hunting! The Game Commission increased the number of antlerless deer permits. What this accomplishes is reducing the number of deer for one thing but more importantly it reduces the number of deer that can fawn.
But let’s not be completely ignorant on the subject. There is some scientific evidence that attempts at reducing some wildlife populations will cause the species to generate more offspring. It’s a natural reaction providing certain things in nature exist. The same scientific evidence tells us that when habitat, which includes food sources, dries up, reproduction rates drop.
It is also naive to believe that if hunters harvest 45,000 deer this year then that means offspring will now automatically be higher than that the next year. It doesn’t work that way.
If wildlife managers are doing their jobs, their collection of data gives them a fairly accurate picture of the health and condition of the herd. All fish and game departments do this, not necessarily all to the same degree but they all do it and adjust the number of permits, types of permits, lengths of season, etc. in order to either maintain, reduce or increase herd numbers.
I will grant this. That under the right conditions, of which I nor the writer of the article know nothing about, a bow hunt in this game preserve could in fact increase the number of deer there.
Perhaps that is the intention of the Game Commission or maybe they are just trying to find more hunting opportunities for licensed bow hunters. Whatever their goals are in having the hunt, it is not an accurate statement to flat out say that hunting deer causes numbers to increase.
Anti-hunters and animal rights groups can’t have it both ways. We have seen numerous times when these groups live and die by the statement that hunting is destroying the game animals. Yet, when it’s convenient, they throw out the statement that hunting actually increases game numbers.
Isn’t it amazing. Most hunters that I know, hunt because they thoroughly enjoy the sport but most importantly they are concerned about the health and condition of the animals they hunt. There is no future for hunters if we kill off all the animals. We want to make sure that there will always be deer, bear, elk or whatever species of game to hunt.
We don’t run about telling anti-hunters that killing deer will increase the deer herds nor do we say that killing them unmanaged will decimate them. We work toward good management policies to insure the future of hunting.
You just can’t have it both ways.
Tom Remington
