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However, the leading counties last season were spread across the state, with representatives in the coastal, piedmont and mountain regions.ĭuring the 2013-14 season Chatham, Franklin and Wake counties made the top 10. During most years, the coastal region dominates the list. These percentages have varied little since the implementation of liberalized either-sex seasons in most areas of the state and the two-buck limit in mountain region and four-buck limit in the coastal region going into effect.ĭuring the 2014-15 season the top 10 counties for total deer harvest were: Northampton, 4,516 Halifax, 3,921 Bertie, 3,798 Anson, 3,583 Union, 3,061 Wilkes, 2,956 Randolph, 2,917 Rockingham, 2,818 Bladen, 2,787 and Beaufort, 2,681. During the 2013-14 season antlered bucks made up 46.0 percent of the harvest button bucks, 8.6 percent and does, 45.4 percent. The doe harvest was 69,869, a decrease of 15,609 or 18.3 percent below the 2013-14 harvest of 85,478.Īntlered bucks made up 47.8 percent of the harvest button bucks, 6.7 percent and does, 45.5 percent. The button buck harvest was 10,321, a decrease of 5,773 or 35.9 percent below the 2012-13 harvest of 16,094. The antlered buck harvest was 73,439, a decrease of 13,149 or 15.2 percent below the 2013-14 harvest of 86,588. Harvests from game lands made up 3.5 percent of the total deer harvest from all of the districts combined, ranging from a low of 0.7 percent of the harvest in District 7 to high of 21.5 percent of the harvest in District 9.
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In District 1, the harvest declined by 11.5 percent District 2, 14.6 percent District 3, 35.4 percent District 4, 15.9 percent, District 5, 24.5 percent District 6, 8.1 percent District 7, 13.4 percent District 8, 13.8 percent and District 9, 8.9 percent. However, the deer harvest in every one of the other districts was also down. The deer in those areas do not develop immunity to the disease to same degree as deer in areas where the disease lingers perpetually.ĭistricts 3 and 5 saw the biggest decreases in harvest when compared to their 2013-14 season harvests, which is evidence that disease played a primary role in the reduced deer kill from those districts. The hardest hit areas are usually the areas that do not have the midges that spread the disease during years with normal weather. Hunters and biologists are still finding deer that are suffering from the disease or have probably died from its effects. While the disease appears to be subsiding in its intensity in North Carolina, it is still having an impact in localized areas.
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It usually does not produce mortality rates that are as high as EHD. Blue tongue is the other hemorrhagic disease in deer. Several years of a strong deer harvest, last year's record harvest and long-term increasing doe harvest trends have also potentially contributed to population decreases in some areas, although effects from harvest factors would typically occur over time and not abruptly in a one-year period."ĭeer hunters who hunted deer by setting up stands over planted food plots or agricultural fields, or attempted to ambush deer traveling some distance between feeding and bedding areas, would also have seen fewer deer than normal.Įpizootic hemorrhagic disease, which is the most virulent strain of hemorrhagic disease, has been an ongoing concern for the past three years throughout the Southeast, along the Mississippi Valley and into the Midwest. "We also had high levels of hemorrhagic disease activity remaining in some areas of the state, particularly in Districts 3 and 5. "We experienced a tremendous acorn crop in fall of 2014 the likes of which hadn't been observed in some areas in decades," Stanford said. Wildlife Commission's Deer Biologist, linked the harvest decline to three probable factors: an abundance of natural food, the ongoing incidence of hemorrhagic disease in some areas and the high deer harvest that has been occurring over the last several seasons. It was, in fact, the lowest deer harvest since the 2005-06 hunting season, when hunters reported harvesting 144,315 deer.Įvin Stanford, the N.C. While that is a whale of a lot of whitetails, the harvest was down significantly from the 2013-14 hunting season's record deer harvest of 188,130. North Carolina deer hunters reported killing 153,629 deer during the 2014-15 hunting season.