California Herd Population and Management News Archive
Reported Annual Deer Hunt 1998: 18,755 1999: 18,639 2000: 22,509 2001: 18,900 2002: 18,315 2003: 15,830 2004: 20,925 2005: 16,430 2006: 16,240 2007: 18,978 2008: 16,941 2009: 16,088 2010: 14,817 2011: 10,892 2012: 12,526 CDFG "The (2011) decline in harvest is a reflectrion of ALDS tag changes and a corresponding increase of nearly 20% in the state wide non-reporting rate." Big Game Digest The deer harvest numbers for the 2012 season are reported in percentages only, so the actual harvest is unknown to the public. | About 489,000 deer are estimated to be in California as of 2012, slightly above the estimate provided by California Fish and Game in 2011. The harvest data for 2011 shows a steep decline, but this is explained as an result of tag changes and non-reporting. In 2011 the harvest of bucks by age class were: Two point bucks: 51.2%; Three point bucks: 29.9%; Four point bucks: 15.4%; Four point plus bucks: 2.7% (source CA Hunting Digest - 2012, page 21). The very high proportion of immature bucks taken as harvest and the very low buck to doe ratio contrasts with the efforts of deer management that many states have enacted since 2000 where stronger buck age restrictions and some balance of the buck to doe ratio have bee implemented. Related News and Information | More Deer Management and Population News by State |