Deer Data Collection – Essential for a Successful Management Program
Accurate and reliable data provide hunters and deer managers valuable insight into what is going on with their deer herd. How can you expect to have a successful deer management program without having the information
Deer Data Collection – Essential for a Successful Management Program
Accurate and reliable data provide hunters and deer managers valuable insight into what is going on with their deer herd. How can you expect to have a successful deer management program without having the information needed to make sound management decisions? Without data, how do you know when its time to take it to the next level? Deer data is typically broken down into two categories: harvest and observation data. In this article, we’ll go through each category and how to put it all together to see the big picture.
As the name implies, this is data taken from harvested animals. Standard data collected includes date, sex, age, weight, lactation, fetal age (if in an area where you can get measurable fetuses from does during hunting season), and antler measurements. It is essential to have a standardized procedure to ensure ALL information from EVERY deer is captured because this will be your database to use for monitoring current management strategies. Once compiled and analyzed, harvest data provides insight to herd health, age structure, sex ratio, and fawn production.
If you have an early rut, fetal data can be collected. Collected fetuses can be aged by measuring their rump to crown length. Thus allowing you to determine the date of conception, peak conception dates (peak of the rut) and the range of the breeding season (this will tell you when you need to schedule your vacation days!). Fetal data can also provide insight to the herd’s productivity and adult sex ratio, which aids in setting harvest goals. By determining the length of the breeding season, you can get an idea of whether the sex ratio in your deer herd is skewed. For example, if you collect fetuses that represent conception dates ranging from November through January, this may tell you your sex ratio is out of balance and that you need to step up your doe harvest. Does that are not bred during their first “heat” cycle will continue to come into heat (usually about 30 days later) until they are bred, thus lengthening the breeding season. You want the breeding season to occur in a narrow window, which will limit the incidence of post-rut mortality for your bucks as well as ensure fawns will be born in a relatively tight timeframe.
Don’t be too hasty in abandoning harvest restrictions or a management program based only on a couple years’ worth of data It can take several hunting seasons to produce a set of harvest data from which you can begin to identify trends. Initially smaller properties may have to pool data from adjoining properties until they have a dataset with sample sizes large enough to show statistical as well as biological trends. The data most commonly tracked from year to year is total deer harvested, weights, lactation rates, and antler measurements. Let’s go through the basics about each of these important areas.
The total number of deer harvested can be broken down by sex and age class. From this we can track historical harvest (number of bucks and does) and the age composition of the bucks and does harvested. You will need to keep in mind that several factors can affect deer harvest trends. For example, good mast years usually result in a lower number of deer harvested. This is not an indicator there are less deer, it means that deer observations were lower and thus harvest rates decreased. These factors should be noted from year to year so that rash decisions are not made based on a small window of information. This data will show us if we are meeting our harvest goals, if we need to better protect young bucks, or if we need to increase/maintain the doe harvest.
Deer weights are usually presented as averages by sex and age class. It is broken down by sex and age class because obviously bucks will weigh more than does and older deer will generally weigh more than younger deer. By comparing weights over time, you can assess herd health status. For example, if you begin to see a decreasing trend in weights, you may have more deer than the habitat can support and need to increase your doe harvest. Yearling buck weights are the best indicator of herd health, but few should be taken in a QDM program. Given the fact mature buck weights will fluctuate greatly during the season (rut), doe weights should be used as an indicator of herd health.
Lactation rates reflect the percentage of does that are “with milk”. If there is milk present, then that indicates that the doe successfully raised a fawn that year. Lactation data is not accurate for areas with early fawning dates (Florida) because fawns are usually weaned by hunting season. Reproductive rates vary among different age classes – yearling does usually have a lower reproductive rate than adult does. This creates the need to separate lactation rates for yearlings and adults. Declines in adult lactation rates can be an indicator of herd health or habitat problems. However, a high incidence of yearling lactation is an indicator of high herd productivity because that means some does are breeding as fawns.
Collecting age and antler measurement information is essential to monitoring the effectiveness of antler restrictions and management strategies. Common antler measurements taken are inside spread, beam length, basal circumferences, and number o