Chat Online With DNR Deer Experts Today

“I didn’t see them chase deer but there is no reason to be going back and forth so many times and meeting on the road, talking and going again”, Mahar described.

The disease doesn’t threaten humans, but it could seriously damage the herd if it’s not contained. The DNR says the deer population has boomed, especially in the southern tier of counties where there is more habitat and a decreasing number of hunters over the past few decades.

As the DNR has sought to regulate the deer harvest, they have largely done so by restricting the number of antlerless deer killed by hunters. He shot an eight-point buck and brought the deer to the deer check station at the Muskegon State Game Area.

To illustrate just how uncrowded this season is, in 2015 only 67 deer were tagged in Pettis County and public land-rich Benton county recorded only 151.

The DNR defines “bucks” as deer with one antler that is at least three inches long; deer without an antler at least three inches long are “antlerless”, which includes both does and young male deer.

“All in all it could be a really nice year”, said Laidlaw, a member of the Wisconsin Buck and Bear Club who also sits on the Big Game Committee of the Wisconsin Conservation Congress. “It’s definitely a more impressive buck herd” than the past two years.

Bows and crossbows may be used during the nine-day gun deer season under the authority of a gun deer license.

“When you had mandatory registration, there were people who didn’t want to travel the distance to take their animal to get it registered… or simply forgot to register their deer”, Lobner said. Hunters are encouraged to take a look at the application, discuss it and provide DNR with feedback. A white-tailed deer from a privately owned facility in Kent County tested positive for CWD.

A terminal illness in elk and deer, chronic wasting disease is relatively new to Nebraska after migrating from places like Wyoming and Colorado.

The Department of Natural Resources says it only expects to sell 500,000 deer licenses this year. Preliminary testing suggests the year-and-a-half-old buck may have had the fatal illness.

A sample from the deer has been sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, for a final assessment. There is no known treatment.

The opening weekend is typically the most successful for hunters.

“Deer hunting is an iconic and defining MI tradition”, DNR Director Keith Creagh said in a statement.

The state’s firearms deer season opened Saturday and continues through November 22. This year it runs from December 19-29, and, with the exception of centerfire rifles, just about any weapon that’s legal in any other season is OK.