Robyn Stewart
As summer fades into fall, I know I am not the only one itching to get in a stand and hopefully harvest a deer or two. While I understand not everyone agrees with or participates in hunting, the harvest of wildlife species in Georgia is critical to the management of healthy animal populations. One goal of the Wildlife Resources Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources is to manage a quality deer herd in Georgia.
Georgia’s deer population has fluctuated over the last few decades. The highest population recorded was in 1997, followed by a steep decline into the mid 2000’s. The decline in that period was attributed to increased hunter harvest limits and a longer deer season. Unfortunately, these efforts overcorrected the population density problem, leading to either-sex days in 2013 to help reduce doe harvest numbers. By 2015, the population had stabilized and become more balanced, and has continued remain that way since. According to the 2018-2019 Deer Program Highlights Report published by GA DNR, there were 278,403 deer harvested by 203,254 hunters in the 2018-2019 season.
In Georgia, we track two diseases in our deer populations; the most prevalent of which is hemorrhagic disease (HD). Though we do not have numbers for 2019-2020 yet, 2018 had a high mortality rate due to HD at 74% even though there were less than 100 cases reported. HD is transmitted by biting flies or midges that transmit two closely related viruses. The disease, like its name implies, causes damage to the walls of blood vessels, and causes lethargy, respiratory distress, ulcers, bleeding from the nose/mouth, and other symptoms. A necropsy of these animals will typically reveal extensive internal bleeding from all organs. There is no treatment for the disease, but if you harvest an animal exhibiting these symptoms, please report it to GA DNR.
While HD is the most impactful disease of deer in Georgia, we are also closing tracking chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer. CWD is a contagious neurological disease that affects deer, elk, and moose. It is a prion disease (so is Mad Cow Disease!) that causes the degeneration of brain tissue in infected animals. CWD is thought to be transmitted in feces, urine, and saliva, and transmitted from animal to animal. It can take 16 months after infection with the disease for the animal to show symptoms such as emaciation, excessive drinking and urination, repetitive behaviors, and listlessness. Fortunately, CWD has not been found in Georgia, but recent outbreaks in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee are concerning. Georgia DNR is continually monitoring our deer population for CWD, so if you suspect it in one of your harvests, please notify them immediately.
A final part of deer management is the tracking of reproduction and mortality rates in fawns. Fawn recruitment is the ratio of fawns per adult doe that survive to deer season. From the 1990’s to the 2000’s, heavy coyote pressure resulted in low fawn recruitment. However, that number has remained stable for the last 10 years at around 0.58 fawns surviving per doe. In 2018 a fawn mortality study was performed which found only 23% of fawns survived from birth to deer season. 80% of the mortalities were attributed to predation by coyotes and black bears.
The 2020-2021 deer season in Georgia is off to a running start with our archery season, which started September 12th and runs through January 10th. As of September 24th, just over 4600 does and 2400 bucks have been harvested throughout the state. In Lincoln County, we total 22 bucks and 27 does harvested. Firearm season will begin October 17th and run through January 10th. Be sure to follow all Georgia DNR regulations and guidelines for hunting safely and legally, and have a great season! If you have any questions, let us know at uge3181@uga.edu or 706-359-3233.
