From the March 2007 issue

2006 Black Bear and Deer Harvests in New York State

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) announced the results for the 2006 black bear hunting season and the results for the 2006-07 deer hunting season, including deer harvest, information about chronic wasting disease (CWD) and hunter safety statistics. Big Game hunters harvested 318 bears in the Adirondack bear range, 113 bears in the Alleganys and 365 bears in the Catskills. Hunters also harvested slightly more than 189,100 deer, including approximately 96,600 bucks and 92,500 antlerless deer.

Black Bear Take

Additional areas were opened for bear hunting in 2006 to reduce negative bear-human interactions

This was the second consecutive year of below-average harvest of bears in the Adirondacks with only 318 taken. An abundance of berries and other natural foods during late summer and early fall may have reduced bear movements, making them less vulnerable to hunters in the big woods areas. Hunters took 113 bears in the Allegany bear range, just slightly below the 2005 record take of 119 bears. Hunters in the Catskills took 365 bears in 2006, including a record 177 bears taken during the archery season.

Bear harvest in the Catskill and Allegany ranges has generally increased during the past two decades despite annual fluctuations. In fact, the 2006 bear harvests in these ranges are more than double the bear harvests from the mid-1990s and are four times greater than the bear takes of the mid 1980s.

Deer Take

The 2006 harvest of almost 96,600 bucks was an encouraging 8 percent increase from 2005 figures, suggesting that deer populations are growing slowly, and recent management actions are working. The 2006 antlerless take remained stable from 2005, despite a nominal increase in deer management permits (DMPs) for 2006. DMPs are issued for harvest of antlerless deer only, and their availability varies among wildlife management units (WMUs), depending on the status of the deer population in each relative to objective levels.

Nearly 190,000 deer were harvested during this hunting season - photo by Hal Korber PGC

Since 1990, DEC has used local citizen task forces to establish deer-population objectives for most WMUs. Deer populations vary considerably throughout New York, and the goal of DEC's deer-management program is to maintain deer numbers at levels that meet local interests and habitat conditions, while also providing quality hunting opportunities for the state's 550,000 deer hunters.

Antler Restriction Program

New York's pilot Antler Restriction Program stipulates that bucks taken in certain WMUs have at least one antler with three points at least one inch in length to be legal. This standard is intended to reduce harvest of yearling or one-year-old bucks, allowing them to survive to older ages. Buck take in each of the designated units has been following the expected trend-a significant drop during the first year of the program with an increase toward objective levels in the second year. The pilot program has demonstrated some success in shifting the age composition of the buck harvest.

Chronic Wasting Disease

CWD is a rare neurological disease that affects the brains of deer, elk and moose, causing the animals to become emaciated, lose body functions and eventually die. Surveillance for this disease began in New York in 2002, with increased efforts in 2005 after it was detected in five captive and two wild deer in Oneida County. Since then, statewide sampling of hunter-killed deer and mandatory deer checks in the Oneida-Madison County CWD Containment Area have continued, but no new cases have been detected.

Hunter Safety

The extraordinary safety record of hunters in New York continued in 2006. With only 35 hunting-related shooting incidents, 2006 was the fourth-safest year since such records have been maintained. In 2006, there were only 19 two-party shooting incidents-a record low. However, there were 16 self-inflicted incidents, which is above the five-year average of 10 incidents per year. Twenty of last year's incidents, including a single hunting fatality, occurred during big-game seasons. Comparing these figures to previous decades shows a remarkable improvement in safety.

Environment DEC