Hunters killed more deer in New Hampshire this winter than in almost any hunting season on record, despite the fact that there are now far fewer hunters in the woods.
Bear hunting also set a record and turkey hunting was also very successful, probably because a shortage of wild nuts and berries brought more of them out into the open.
The unofficial deer harvest for the state’s 2018 hunting season was 14,057, a full 26 percent higher than the 20-year average.
“This season’s estimated total harvest ranks as the second highest in the state’s history going back 96 years to 1922. It was only exceeded in 1967, when 14,204 were taken,” said Dan Bergeron, N.H. Fish and Game’s deer biologist.
The parallel with 1967 is telling because in 1967, some 85,000 people bought New Hampshire hunting licenses but this year only about 51,000 people did so. That is a drop of almost 40 percent that reflects a long-term decline in hunting throughout the country.
There are many reasons why fewer hunters could bag as many deer, including better technology, such as game cameras that allow hunters to pinpoint deer’s habits, and the growing and healthy deer herd. The early snow in October and November also helped, since it made it easier for hunters to find deer.
Bergeron said the physical condition of deer appeared quite good again this year despite a shortfall in wild fruits and nuts, and that a number of very large bucks were taken throughout the state.
Fish and Game argues that biologists’ control of hunting seasons, including setting dates and limiting how many female deer can be killed, is one reason for this success.
Bergeron noted that the 1967 deer harvest was 62 percent antler-less deer, most of whom were does, because hunters were allowed to harvest both male and female deer statewide throughout all seasons.
“The unregulated harvest of does continued into the early 1980s and combined with several hard winters, resulted in a significant decline in the deer population,” Fish and Game said in a press release. “In contrast, the majority of the 2018 harvest will be comprised of antlered bucks. This will result in an overall larger and healthier deer population and a more sustainable long-term harvest.”
Wildlife biologist Kent Gustafson noted that many other changes have occurred in New Hampshire hunting over the past half-century that could increase the success rate for hunters. They include a 20-fold increase in the number of people hunting deer with archery or muzzleloaders, because technology in both those sports has improved greatly. The state is also selling more special tags in certain areas of the state where deer over-population is a problem, allowing hunters to take extra deer there.
Deer hunting seasons for archery, firearms and rifles ended in early December.
Merrimack County saw a moderate increase in deer harvest – almost 1,400 deer were registered at check stations in the county, about 8 percent higher than the average over the past decade.
However, the real increases this year were seen at New Hampshire’s two endpoints.
The harvest in Hillsborough County soared from about 1,600 in recent years to 2,645, a boost of more than 50 percent, while the harvest in Coos County bordering Quebec went from about 800 to 1,034, an increase of 25 percent.
For more information, check the state hunting website at huntnh.com/hunting/deer-harvest.html.
A total of 1,052 bears were killed by hunters, 46 percent above the preceding 5-year average and a state record, over the previous record of 898 in 2016.
Officials attributed it to a shortage of mast, the term for wild fruits and nuts, in state woods this year. That caused more bears to travel out of hiding looking for food, making it easier for hunters to find them.
“Earlier in the season, bear food sources were primarily limited to apples (although spotty), white oak acorns (low statewide distribution), and corn,” said Andrew Timmins, N.H. Fish and Game’s Bear Biologist.
Timmins noted that these foods were largely depleted by mid-October and that bears began denning early. By the end of September, 85 percent of the total harvest had occurred, and by mid-October 95 percent of the total was accounted for.
As for turkeys, figures indicate that New Hampshire hunters killed a total of 1,280 turkeys this fall, almost three times as many as the 450 birds taken in 2017.
According to Ted Walski, N.H. Fish and Game’s Turkey biologist, “The primary reason for the increase was the lack of hard and soft mast in the woods.” The harvest will be down in good mast years, as it was in 2017, and it will increase in poor mast years like 2018 because turkey flocks are in the fields where they’re more easily seen by hunters.
Towns with the greatest fall turkey harvests included Loudon (24), Weare (22), Hopkinton (17) and Webster (17).
(David Brooks can be reached at 369-3313 or dbrooks@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @GraniteGeek.)
