Anyone noticed a drop in WT numbers??

Numbers were down in my area of Ont too.
We ended up chaseing fawns & does around but decided the best way to increase the buck numbers is to leave the does ;)
Final count 4 bucks, 1 doe & 1 fawn.

While I can't confirm the reason numbers are down!! 4 bears were shot in & with-in 1 mile of my hunt area & I was still getting game cam pics of the big guy that went to sleep naturally again this year :mad:
 
Both species of deer are a way down in south-central BC, the Shuswap, Thompson and maybe Kamloops area. The reports I hear are there are lots further south in the south Okanagan.
Our game department has no funds for inventory work, to even officially know about these things, so certainly no money or staff to look into the "why", of why they seem to be down.
Salmon Arm is a huge municipality, lots of smaller farms, tree lines, old growth and brushy areas, with no hunting having been allowed for years. In short, a haven for whitetail deer. My son lives on a small farm that used to be well populated with deer throughout the area. This year, I don't think he has seen one all year. We live on acreage much closer to town, but deer quite often wandered through our place. They haven't for about two years now.
This last fall we went many evenings on drives throughout the more thinly populated areas of the entire municipality, looking for deer. We didn't see a single deer all fall!
I suspect there has been a disease hit them. About three years ago our son and grandson brought a shot deer to our place. There was a huge, abnormal, growth on its neck and shoulder. I quickly told them to don't even think about eating it.
A year ago this fall on an evening drive thirty miles out, we saw a deer in an abandoned field. My camera has a long zoom lens and the deer very patiently let me take all the pictures I wanted to take. When I enlarged the pictures on the computer it could be seen that the deer had a large, abnormal growth down the entire inside of the one back leg, that was visible.
This past summer and fall, with many drives on back roads with the car, plus trips on really back roads with the quad, we didn't see a single deer.
 
I didn't see 25% of the deer I saw las year in central Alberta. So many wolf and coyote tracks though. Saw packs of 10+ coyotes roaming around in the camrose area.
 
Had a mule deer draw in 2w in southern sask and it was terrible. Ranchers and the pasture manager in our area figured 75% winter kill. When the ministry of natural resource was flying the area to determine antelope numbers I am not sure how they missed the fact there were no mule deer. Now I start all over with my priority status!!
 
bearkilr said:
Numbers are down significantly in areas of MB, see pic below for main reason:

nov182011002.jpg
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I don't know what area you hunt Bearklr but from my stands in then Whiteshell I've heard packs of wolves howling almost every still morning. Lots of wolf tracks and very few deer sightings compared to other years. Deer numbers are definately down in the eastern part of the province. I was fortunate to shoot a good buck early but I've spent over15 days in the field and have only pulled my rifle up twice.
 
H4831 said:
Both species of deer are a way down in south-central BC, the Shuswap, Thompson and maybe Kamloops area. The reports I hear are there are lots further south in the south Okanagan.
Our game department has no funds for inventory work, to even officially know about these things, so certainly no money or staff to look into the "why", of why they seem to be down.
Salmon Arm is a huge municipality, lots of smaller farms, tree lines, old growth and brushy areas, with no hunting having been allowed for years. In short, a haven for whitetail deer. My son lives on a small farm that used to be well populated with deer throughout the area. This year, I don't think he has seen one all year. We live on acreage much closer to town, but deer quite often wandered through our place. They haven't for about two years now.
This last fall we went many evenings on drives throughout the more thinly populated areas of the entire municipality, looking for deer. We didn't see a single deer all fall!
I suspect there has been a disease hit them. About three years ago our son and grandson brought a shot deer to our place. There was a huge, abnormal, growth on its neck and shoulder. I quickly told them to don't even think about eating it.
A year ago this fall on an evening drive thirty miles out, we saw a deer in an abandoned field. My camera has a long zoom lens and the deer very patiently let me take all the pictures I wanted to take. When I enlarged the pictures on the computer it could be seen that the deer had a large, abnormal growth down the entire inside of the one back leg, that was visible.
This past summer and fall, with many drives on back roads with the car, plus trips on really back roads with the quad, we didn't see a single deer.
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Hey H4, I have seen a few deer with growths on them near Tappen. One doe had one almost the size of a watermelon on its lower neck in the front. Maybe a wide spread problem in the area?
 
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I would definitely say deer numbers are downin central alberta from what I've seen. So far this season I've only spotted 2 and none in the area I've gotten a number of deer over previous years. I also think the warm weather we are having meena we don't see them as much. I have however seen more coyotes this year than ever before.
 
Dench said:
Hey H4, I have seen a few deer with growths on them near Tappen. One doe had one almost the size of a watermelon on its lower neck in the front. Maybe a wide spread problem in the area?
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It is scary, that people like you and I have to talk about something as serious as this could be, and not a word from the bC game department. Oops, I mean conservation agency.
 
H4831 said:
It is scary, that people like you and I have to talk about something as serious as this could be, and not a word from the bC game department. Oops, I mean conservation agency.
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I was going to tagging her and calling it in but it is to late now. I also do not know how they work and if they would have even looked at it.
 
In the areas I hunt the numbers are seriously down from last year. I have seen a few mature does without fawns but no bucks at all and I have found zero rubs and scrapes. On the other hand coyotes and wolves are around in great numbers based on the "talking" they are both doing. When the snow came the lack of deer tracks said that the deer are few in number and the coyotes and some wolves are present in record numbers.I actually saw a decent sized wolf at 200 yards or so in broad daylight three days ago. It seems like the predator numbers have been building for a couple of years at least and I suspect they have been taking out fawns in dramatic numbers.

I think we are in or on the brink of a serious population crash at least in my area that isn't going to turn around any time soon. I have the sense from talking to other hunters that this is pretty widespread.

There is another week of season left but I am losing interest under the circumstances.:(
 
My boys and I have 5 deer in the freezer this year. 3 Bucks and 2 does. We still have a couple of doe tags left. Been hunting pretty hard in the Calgary area to get them. There are definitely less deer this year than years past.

Actually, I would say that I have seen more bucks than years past, especially during the rut. I think this is due to the lower numbers of does. Those bucks must be finding it hard to get the does too, hahaha, and are traveling more to find them.
 
Cold Lake area I've had poor luck even seeing deer. Only seen deer half the time. However, some in my area have had no problems filling thier WT doe tags.
Recently friends drove to Edmonton from Cold Lake and back, they counted a ridiculous number of coyotes in the nearby fields.
I have seen more than a few wolf/coyote tracks in previously very fruitful hunting areas.
But I have hunted less this year, so my experience is limited by this fact.
Last Wednesday I went hunting and did see three moose but only two WT deer, but I did pack it in early, at 2 PM due to prior commitments.
Predator numbers are up overall I think. On my now-gone favorite bunny trail, seen a Lynx or a Bobcat hanging around, earlier this fall.
 
Big Game said:
I don't know what area you hunt Bearklr but from my stands in then Whiteshell I've heard packs of wolves howling almost every still morning. Lots of wolf tracks and very few deer sightings compared to other years. Deer numbers are definately down in the eastern part of the province. I was fortunate to shoot a good buck early but I've spent over15 days in the field and have only pulled my rifle up twice.
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That's not a wolf.... that's a coyote.... fyi
 
Ardent said:
Seems like the same numbers around High Level Alberta as last year (tons). Tons of wolves, tons of yotes, tons of deer the usual.
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I drove through there on the 8th of Nov. I could not believe the number of deer I was seeing from the highway; they were literally everywhere. But once I got down to the Slave lake area, which is usually loaded also, I didn't see any.

I also didn't see a single deer in Sask driving across it twice about 10 days apart.

I hunted a week in Manitoba and although I wasn't successful, I did notice the same as others here: very few deer out in the open but lots of tracks in the big bush. And coyotes everywhere. Even yapping in the middle of the day. You guys from Manitoba need to get busy and do something about that........
 
Glad somebody can back up my assertion joe, we're literally swamped in whitetails to the point it's a nuisance and culls have been discussed. The concentrations are literally shocking, including big bucks. We're also too well stocked with Moose, the amount of highway collisions with deer and Moose is unreal around home. Wolves are unbelievably abundant as a result as well. This is why I'm skeptical whenever somebody says Wolves are here, deer are gone... :p

Weather and feedstocks (wild and agricultural) has a lot more to do with deer numbers than predation, in my mind. We had a terrible year for farmers down south (meaning south of 56-57 degrees north to me), but our area at the extreme north end of the agricultural belt did well, an odd man out of all the rain and flooding. Our deer as a result are still almost too prevalent, and down south has been wiped out pretty hard, not a good spring for fawns. When crops suffer, so do the natural feedstocks as well, this is my take on it. There's even more deer here when you get off highway.
 
I haven't seen many and talking to other hunters it's pretty much the same story. Coyote and wolf numbers are up and I think last winter was hard on them in certain areas.
 
Seems to me that the bulk of the low deer numbers would be in areas that are mostly prairie land, not wooded areas. Last winter there were a couple of near thaws on the prairies that turned the snow to ice, making it hard for the deer to feed. Just speculating here.

I'm not familiar with the forest areas, did the same thing happen there? Or perhaps the deer were better able to feed in the winter.
 
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