Originally posted by delaney:
I would hope so, but how would they calculate it. It could be that they'll take the view that if EHD had really crashed the herd, the percentage decrease would have been worse. Heck, I don't really know though. Hopefully the surveys from hunters can positively influence things. I am probably very biased. Guys are posting on another thread that they are seeing 20 or 30 deer together, which is great. I'm told that our field up north has over 40 in it daily. But, that number is not good in my opinion because just a few years ago that number would have been 75 to 80. And, we didn't even hunt that farm after the first week of November.
When you see deer this time of year on a food source, and they are yarded up, it is likely ALL the deer within a very large area. The 20 or so on our place are most of the deer in a 4 square mile block! That is confirmed by the absence of tracks in the snow for the last two months. That number USED to be 50 to 60 on our place.
8% is a pretty substantial number in my book. That is an average of 115 deer per county less! Its not a surprising number to me.
