It’s almost time for fall hunting seasons to begin in New Hampshire, but first let’s celebrate our yearling antler beam diameters, which have averaged between 17 and 20 millimeters for years.
That may not sound like much of a reason for celebration, but to wildlife biologists it’s an indication that New Hampshire’s deer herd is doing pretty well.
“Average yearling antler beam diameter and weight were both above the recent 5-year average. … Both suggest a deer population in good physical condition and below the biological carrying capacity of our deer habitat,” is how it is put in one of the most informative publications released by the state, the annual Wildlife Harvest Summary. (“Beam,” incidentally, is the deer-antler equivalent of a tree trunk.)
This handbook from New Hampshire Fish and Game Department collects data and observations from hunting seasons for deer, bear, moose and turkey, plus the trapping of nine “furbearer” species, from coyote and fox to beaver and muskrat.
Biologists have long used hunters as a way to keep tabs on the general health, population and range of game animals in the wild, requiring many killed animals to be brought to weigh stations where information about their size, gender and age – not to mention details like antler diameter –can be recorded.
Consider black bears. We would like to know how many there are and where they live, but it would cost a fortune to send enough people out into the woods to do a census, if that was even possible. The information must be estimated indirectly.
“The New Hampshire bear management recipe is quite complex,” reports the 2015 New Hampshire Wildlife Harvest Summary, after presenting some details:
“Age data derived from premolars collected during bear registration are the backbone of New Hampshire’s bear management program. We use harvest sex and age data to estimate sex-specific harvest rates. Knowing these rates allows us to back-calculate a statewide population estimate from annual harvest data. Regional sighting rates derived from hunter surveys, coupled with knowledge of the amount of bear habitat in each management region, allows us to partition the population across six management regions.”
And while the idea of having to kill animals in order to help them draws more than its share of critics, it remains an integral part of wildlife management in New Hampshire.
Here are some details from the 52 pages of the 2015 New Hampshire Wildlife Harvest Summary:
— You don’t have to leave the city to hunt. During last year’s various hunting seasons, 89 deer were reported to have been killed within Concord itself, as were 50 turkeys (38 in fall, 12 in spring) and two black bears.
— There are too many deer in the state’s built-up southeast, reflecting a problem found in many suburban and urban areas. The area from Nashua to Portsmouth, called Wildlife Management Unit M, has 37 percent more deer than called for in the state’s 10-year wildlife management plan. Within the greater Concord area, however, the population is deemed about right, within 10 percent plus or minus of the long-term goal.
— The biggest deer that was killed last year weighed 249 pounds when field-dressed, meaning after all internal organs were removed. This implies it weighed at least 285 pounds when alive.
That’s a very big buck, but it’s not in the historical top 10 for what are called trophy bucks in New Hampshire. In 1985, a buck weighing 289 pounds field-dressed, or well over 320 pounds when alive, was shot in Coos County.
There’s also a 1951 report of a 294-pound buck being killed, but the summary notes that this “could not be verified” as the field-dressed weight.
— It will come as no surprise in the wake of increasing reports of bird feeders being raided, but there are more black bears hereabouts than the long-term plan calls for. In fact, the goal is to decrease the population in central New Hampshire, including the Concord area, as well as in the White Mountains.
— The youngest person to kill a moose during the moose hunting season was a 10-year-old state resident who registering a 772 pound bull with 18 points and a 48.13-inch spread of antlers. A 78-year-old state resident was the oldest successful moose hunter.
— The return of wild turkeys since the 1970s to New Hampshire, where they had been gone for a century after being wiped out by hunting and the spread of farms, is one of the great wildlife success stories of recent decades. The turkey hunting seasons keep expanding as the birds’ population grows.
These days, that includes an archery season, which has proved particularly successful in the southeast quadrant, “where the use of firearms is more restricted in these populated towns.”
Concord saw one the biggest turkeys killed last year, weighing a whopping 24 ½ pounds.
— Trapping fur-bearing animals to sell the pelts isn’t a very big business: “The value of the 2014-15 fur harvest was $55,728, based on average pelt values and the total amount of fur harvested in New Hampshire,” reports the survey
The more lucrative business for trapper involves catching and removing nuisance animals, particularly beavers whose dams block culverts or cause flooding.
There wee 652 trapping licenses issued in New Hampshire last year, a slight decrease from the year before.
(David Brooks can be reached at 369-3313 or dbrooks@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @GraniteGeek)
A lot of hunting takes place in Concord and surrounding communities, judging from reported tallies for the three most common game animals of deer, black bear and wild turkeys:
Town – Deer – bear – turkeys (both fall and spring seasons)
Allenstown – 32 – 0 – 13
Boscowen – 19 – 3 – 15
Bow – 77 – 1 – 20
Canterbury – 65 – 1 – 45
Chichester – 67 – 0 – 19
Concord – 89 – 2 – 50
Dunbarton – 57 – 2 – 25
Epsom – 82 – 0 – 59
Franklin – 30 – 4 – 14
Henniker – 38 – 2 – 31
Hopkinton – 46 – 2 – 31
Loudon – 117 – 0 – 53
Pembroke – 55 – 0 – 21
Pittsfield – 90 – 0 – 26
Salisbury – 27 – 10 – 23
Warner – 20 – 0 – 16
Weare – 100 – 1 – 39
Webster – 17 – 5 – 22
Source: 2015 New Hampshire Wildlife Harvest Summary
