Deer Population
The total United States deer population in 2021 was about 35.2 million, up from a recent low of 32.2 million in 2014, down from the recent peak in 2000 of 38.1 million deer. In 2021 there were about 31.7 million whitetails and 3.5 million mule and blacktail deer. Use the drop down menu above to see the population analysis "By State". Chart Data and Analysis
Whitetail deer populations in the United States have returned to about the range of common estimates for the pre-European contact period, but mule deer and blacktail deer are well below recent peaks and pre-colonization estimates.
As described in this page of historic estimates, the pre-colonial whitetail population presented in the chart above is largely based on the most commonly cited work of McCabe and McCabe (1984) who based their estimates on the population size of Native Americans. However, there is significant variability in these estimates, but generally the pre-contact Native American population is now generally considered to be higher than the number used by McCabe and McCabe. Hanberry and Hanberry (2020) place a maximum upper bound on the whitetail population before Euro-American settlement at 65 million to 80 million in North America. As VerCauteren notes, the whitetail population has expanded its range to the north and south since about the mid-1900s.
The whitetail population fell from about 33.5 million in 2000 to 28.6 million in 2014, recovering to about 31.7 million in 2021. About 1.5 million of that recovery is associated with Texas where the population increased around 2016 and 2017 at the same time Texas Parks and Wildlife recalibrated its deer population model. The current whitetail population is about the same as pre-colonization when the population was estimated at roughly 30 million by . Historic estimates. However, the whitetail range significantly expanded to the north and west in the past hundred years so a lower deer density results in the same total number of deer.
The mule and blacktail deer populations fell from about 4.6 million in 2000 to 3.8 million in 2013 and 3.4 million in 2023. The hard winter of 2022-23 in the northwest dramatically reduced populations in some areas. The recent peak for mule and blacktails was around 1960 as illustrated in the chart above. Not included are non-native deer imported from Asia, about 131,000 wild Axis deer in Hawaii and 15,000 in Texas. Also 15,000 Sika deer in Maryland.
Counting Suburban Deer
Most states do not make it clear if their deer population estimates include deer hunted in rural areas and deer in suburban and urban areas that are not hunted. This analysis using data from Massachusetts indicates the deer population density in what the U.S. Census Bureau defines as rural versus urban land, including suburban, is about the same. Some suburban areas may have higher densities, but many urban areas have no deer averaging out the deer density. Based on this assumption, there may be up to a million deer not being counted in the estimates presented here (3% of 35.2 million) assuming all states are not counting these deer.
The Total U.S. Deer Kill
As illustrated in the chart below, while the total deer population fell by about 7.1 percent from the year 2000 to 2021, the number of deer killed in the annual hunt fell by about 16 percent from 7,552,739 to 6,343,858. The deer kill in 2022 was about stable at 6,356,709. Fewer hunters in some areas and hunting restrictions contributed to this difference. Or the deer population could be overestimated. The increased deer kill in 2020 is associated with more hunters in the field during the pandemic. The data used for the chart, with the hunting data for each state, is available in this spreadsheet.
Deer were nearly hunted to extinction by the early 1900s and were extirpated in many regions. In 1890 the U.S. BIological Survey estimated the whitetail population at 300,000. Conservation and restocking allowed whitetail populations to recover to about pre-colonization levels while blacktails and mule deer are below historic levels. A Wall Street Journal article reports that “The U.S. now has 30 million deer, a hundred times more than a century ago" failing to point out that deer faced a near extinction event 100 years ago and that the white-tail population has approximately returned to its historic population size. [This and other examples in news and research]. The modern decline of mule and blacktail populations has been a major concern of wildlife agencies for decades.
Data for the trend in the whitetail deer population from 2000 and earlier is based on Kert VerCauteren in The Deer Boom, the Wildlife Management Institute's 1984 book "Whitetail Deer: Ecology and Management" and other historic deer data, updated using current harvest data and state population estimates. This information is provided in more detail in this data history page, including sources describing the relatively recent migration of deer into much of Canada. Recent University of Wyoming research puts the white-tailed deer population prior to European settlement in America at 30 to 40 million.
Research published in 2014 and 2018 using data from this site identified the recent change in the total population trend, turning down around the year 2000. Using a sample of populations from 29 states, the U.S. Forest service published a report in 2010 identifying the year 2000 peak for whitetail deer.
In 2012 there were 231,431 deer on 4,042 operations in the country according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service.
Cornell Extension estimates a much lower population? Check the math.
Causes for the Decline of the Deer Population
Habitat loss, change, and fragmentation are known to play a role in the decline. Many fear that chronic wasting disease will drive the deer population to low levels over the coming decades. Searching the internet, this site has tracked many of the proposed causes for the declining deer population reported in the column at right and in more detail on for each state on their page, including:
- California: Increased forest density, drought, predation.
- Maine and New England: Changes that have occurred on commercially managed forest lands – based on a new Forest Study
- Connecticut: First decline since early 1900’s, increased predation (Bobcat, Coywolf)
- Western North Carolina: Mature Forests, Cherokee Indians are restocking deer herds
- West Virginia: Aging forests in high mountains
- Georgia: Coyotes
- Minnesota: Severe Winters
- Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Minnesota: Overharvest, drought, EHD
- Colorado: Food supply, predation, energy development
- North Dakota: Drought, EHD (severe decline), habitat loss
- Montana: Loss of habitat, severe winter, predation
- Oregon: Reduction in logging related to timber sales
When Europeans first came to settle America, it was estimated that as many as 10 million elk roamed the land. The current population is around one million. An estimated 1 million moose in North America in 2018. The last U.S. caribou was moved to Canada in an effort to save the local herd in 2019.
Mule Deer and Blacktail Deer Populations Have Been in Decline for Many Years
The graph below shows the estimated 1911 to 2016 California deer population, made up of blacktails and mule deer, falling by about 75 percent from 1960. See the California page for an analysis of what appears to be the largest modern decline in the deer population.
California Deer Population Estimate, 1911 to 2016
Read a peer reviewed research article demonstrating how public management decisions in California may have contributed to the long term decline of the deer population.
What Are We Conserving with Conservation?
We have outlawed wilderness — can rewilding bring it back? November 11, 2019 apolitical.com
... Our hunter-gatherer ancestors caused the widespread demise of the large herbivores leading to a “downgrading” of ecosystems. As the grazers were no longer around to keep woody vegetation in check, trees got the upper hand over grasses and forests became the dominant vegetation ... Today, the realization that biodiversity policy has been protecting the ecological impacts of historic extinctions ...
Are Deer a Threat to Forests?
Does white-tailed deer density affect tree stocking in forests of the Eastern United States? August, 2019 Ecological Processes
... Despite deer pressure, a major transition in eastern forests has resulted in increased tree densities. Methods To reconcile conflicting trends, we applied generalized linear mixed models to compare deer densities during 1982 and then 1996 to tree stocking after about 30 years and 15 years of potential reductions of small trees by deer, for the entire eastern US and 11 ecological provinces... Deer densities and tree stocking were not related significantly for the entire eastern US... Furthermore, major tree species trends did not match tree browse preferences. Conclusions Rather than too few trees, too many trees is an ecological problem where historical open oak and pine forests had herbaceous understories, and currently, trees have captured growing space. We attribute other drivers than deer to explain this transition...
Regaining the History of Deer Populations and Densities in the Southeastern United States BB Hanberry, P Hanberry - Wildlife Society Bulletin, 2020
... Deer population sizes declined to a minimum of <215,000 during the early 1900s. Population sizes and mean deer densities were 304,000 and 0.22 deer/km2 by 1940, 476,000 and 0.35 deer/km2 by 1950, 2.9 million to 4.1 million and 2.2 to 3.1 deer/km2 by approximately 1970, 6.2 million and 4.6 deer/km2 by 1982, and 10.8 million to 12 million and 8 to 9 deer/km2 by about 2003... the current population may be within the bounds of mid to high historical deer densities ... deer may be considered a natural disturbance helpful in controlling increased tree densities during the past century ...
Maybe deer aren't the forest-killers we thought they were October 6, 2020 Concord Monitor
... A report from the U.S. Forest Service (read it here) says: ... using current tree surveys and historical records they examined trends in tree species preferred by deer. Researchers found white-tail deer have not reduced tree densities at landscape scales across the Eastern U.S. In fact, they propose other management influences and fire exclusion have had bigger impacts...
Are Forests a Threat to Deer?
"Factors Related to Larger but Fewer Wildfires and Fewer Deer in California: A Google Sites Knowledge Base," [PDF] (2019) Issues in Information Systems. 20(1), pp. 22-31.
... Large wildfires have been a recent focus of public concern in California and other western states... Data from 1987 show that total acres burned increased and were correlated to increased maximum temperature, and that that wildfires have become larger but less frequent. A decline in logging activity was strongly correlated to increased fire size and reduced deer populations. [Forest density in California has increased as a result of forest management practices and reduced logging, reducing deer habitat and dramatically reducing the deer population]. Drought was also correlated to increased fire size and fewer deer. ...
Habitat Use of Female Columbian Black-tailed Deer in Western Oregon TJ Schrautemeier - 2017
... Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) observed declines in black-tailed deer populations since the late 1980’s and attributes these declines to reduction in quality and availability of habitat, following the decline of timber harvest on federal lands... my results support the hypothesis that food and cover are more readily available and used by female black-tailed deer on industrial forestlands than federal forestlands in western Oregon...
‘There’s good fire and bad fire.’ An Indigenous practice may be key to preventing wildfires December 18, 2020 California, National Geographic
... The Indigenous Peoples Burn Network focused on a single goal: setting forests on fire.... [ancestors] burned young trees and brush to create and maintain meadows that would attract deer and elk... As these flames ceased, a new kind of forest emerged: a nearly fire-free ecosystem that was unlike anything that had existed since the end of the Ice Age...
Chronic Wasting Disease is Expected to Dramatically Reduce Future Deer Populations
Biologist ponders: What happens when every deer has chronic wasting disease? February 13, 2020 Minnesota, StarTribune
... As the environmental reservoir of toxic prions continues to grow, deer can be infected irrespective of whether there are many or few deer in the immediate area. That is why culling works only in the very early stages of a CWD outbreak ... Deer with Gene A live for two years after infection; Gene B two to three years: Gene C up to four years...
Widely used neonic insecticides may be a threat to mammals, too February 5, 2021 Food & Environment Reporting Network
... Chemically related to nicotine, neonics, as they’re known, were developed in the 1990s as a safer alternative to more toxic, longer-lasting farm chemicals... data suggesting that a significant number of wild deer in the upper Midwest have neonics in their spleens... “Neonics could have a catastrophic effect on white-tailed deer populations,” ...
The End of Caribou in the U.S.
The Quiet Extinction February 19, 2020 Montana, Montana Kaimin
... Caribou herds once abundantly thrived from
General Information
The California Deer Decline and Possibilities for Restoration Cal-Nevada Wildlife Transactions, 1976
Decline of Mule Deer Populations in Colorado: Reasons and Responses. 1999.
North American Mule Deer Conservation Plan - MULE DEER ... From Alaska, down the Pacific Coast of California to southern Baja Mexico and from the extreme ..... decline of mule deer populations over large portions ..
Estimated whitetail populations. Published by Deer and Deer Hunting in the 1998 Almanac: Texas 3,748,000, Michigan 1,900,000, Mississippi 1,750,000, Wisconsin 1,600,000, Alabama 1,500,000
Statistical Abstract, 1957: 454,000 deer killed by hunters in the United States
Deer Population in the South ... The deer population increased from about 303,500 in the mid-forties to about 2,405,000 at the present time [1969] and the kill increased from about 60,133 in 1950 to 274,184 in 1967 in the 11 Southern States on which data are available...
An estimated 1 million moose in North America in 2018.
When Europeans first came to settle America, it was estimated that as many as 10 million elk roamed the land [Kathy Funk, the Virginia volunteer state chair for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation] ...
The elk are coming! The elk are coming! December 17, 2017 California, Oroville Mercury Register
... Prior to Europeans, there were about 10 million elk in all of the USA. Due to excessive hunting the population dropped to about 50,000, and through restocking it’s up to about 1 million...
Early humans hunted the largest available animals to extinction for 1.5 million years December 21, 2021
Phys.org
... "Starting about 400,000 years ago, the humans who lived in our region—early ancestors of the Neandertals and Homo sapiens, appear to have hunted mainly deer, along with some larger animals weighing almost a ton, such as wild cattle and horses...
These population estimates are the total of estimates from state wildlife agencies and other published sources. Hunting and other data is used to fill in missing years. This peer reviewed paper explains the method. Use the drop down menu above "By State" to go each state for a detailed population analysis and news.
Population trends vary considerably by state. Western deer, mule deer and blacktails, have been in a long decline. Some whitetail populations are near or at recent highs such as in Wisconsin and Texas, while whitetails have been declining in Georgia. Each state page has a link to an archive of "Population and Management" information in the upper right corner used in analyzing the populations.
Reports of Deer Populations in Decline
DNR reviewing public input as it looks at new hunting and trapping regulations May 12, 2025 Iowa, Radio Iowa
... deer comments focused on some key areas. “Our population is too low, saw too few deer. EHD numbers were much higher than reported. People are asking to reduce or eliminate party hunting, reduce or eliminate antlerless tags, limit everyone to one buck, or need a buck only in all gun seasons...
Cody area hunters share concerns about CWD in mule deer community meetings April 23, 2025 Wyoming Public Radio
... Mule deer populations in some parts of Wyoming have been declining for decades... Corey Class, Wildlife Management Coordinator who works out of the department’s Cody office, said the top concern in his region was chronic wasting disease (CWD)...
ODFW proposing to change boundaries of mule deer hunts starting in 2026 April 15, 2025 Oregon, NewsBreak
... Due to declining mule deer populations, a trend ODFW attributes to multiple factors including predation, climate change, and habitat loss and degradation, Oregon’s 2024 mule deer plan calls on the agency to use herd ranges, rather than the current wildlife management units, as the basis for managing the species ...
Be judicious with development March 13, 2025 Nevada, Las Vegas Sun News
... an attempt for exploratory drilling searching for fossil fuels in the Ruby Mountains and surrounding foothills... interest in solar and wind farms within what is now the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument. These areas respectively support the state’s largest population of mule deer, whose numbers are declining throughout the West ...
60 Michigan moose will be sedated, fitted with tracking collars for new study February 10, 2025 MLive on MSN
... Figuring out why Michigan’s moose population has hit a wall instead of expanding like wildlife scientists believe it should have in the last 40 years is at the crux of a new study that plans to fit tracking collars onto 60 of the huge animals in the next two years..,
Deer kingdom vanishes, Monpura loses its iconic herd February 9, 205 Bangladesh Jagonews24
... Locals attribute the alarming drop in deer numbers to increased hunting and habitat loss... river erosion and deforestation have reduced the deer's natural habitats ...Tourists visiting Monpura expressed disappointment over the absence of deer...
Senate kills bill to create separate mule, whitetail deer seasons January 28, 2025 Wyoming, Yahoo
... the state Senate rejected Senate File 3, “Mule and whitetail deer-separate hunting seasons,” in a 19-12 vote ... “We are struggling with mule deer statewide, and virtually every (mule deer) herd unit across the state has declined,” Driskill said ..,
2024 Year in Review January 14, 2025 North Dakota Game and Fish Magazine
... the number one factor in limiting deer production and recruitment in the state is a general lack of key habitat across our landscape. If we are ever to return to issuing the number of deer licenses that we did in the early 2000s, we will need a lot of things to fall into place, including the addition of high-quality wildlife habitat across the state...
Most comments back mule deer closures December 19, 2024 Washington, Methow Valley News
... , WDFW said, “Due to the effects of climate change, including catastrophic wildfire, mule deer winter range has been on the decline. Simultaneously, year-round recreation has been on the rise. Therefore, there is less quality habitat available for wildlife and more human disturbance during those critical winter and early spring months.”...
A long journey: Wildlife biologists closely following mule deer in Yellowstone ecosystem December 17, 2024 Wyoming, Powell Tribune
... populations have dropped quickly in recent years ... What the scientists have found is that fawns have a higher rate of mortality than they have historically due to challenges they face, like crossing rivers as snowmelt swells rivers and migration routes that are chopped up due to human encroachment on migration routes..,
Increasing development threatens mule deer habitat December 11, 2024 Wyoming, Cody Enterprise
... “It’s a massive collision of wilderness and human-influenced landscape,” wildlife biologist Tony Mong said. “We’re at a crossroads. We’re paper-cutting our wildlife to death.” ... Wyoming herds, which numbered 450,000 during 2005-2010, have declined to about 200,000 currently..,
Wyoming Game and Fish tackle mule deer population decline December 9, 2024 KULR
... "We think the causes are pretty varied, habitat loss, changes in predator dynamics, changes in weather patterns, all of those things sort of feed into why we see those different dynamics, and that's one of the goals of this project is to hone in on those different conditions, and the management levers we can pull to help change these decline, or reverse these declines," Hall said...,
Firearm deer harvest down 2% statewide December 4, 2024 Nebraska Game and Parks
... statewide harvest was down 2% from 2023 and down 24% from the 2019-2023 average... Total deer harvest for the firearm season has declined each year since 2019... “Nebraska Game and Parks significantly reduced permit quotas, intending to reduce harvest this year, due to lower numbers of deer,” said Luke Meduna, Game and Parks’ big game program manager. Deer populations in Nebraska have been declining in recent years due to drought conditions, severe winters and increased permit quotas in 2019 and 2020..,
State agency hosts talks across Wyoming on declining mule deer November 28, 2024 Wyoming, Public News Service on MSN
... According to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the state had an estimated 216,000 mule deer in 2023, a historic low and a 63% decrease from a high of 578,000 in 1991. It follows a pattern of decline across the West, due to extreme weather, habitat loss, disease and other factors..,
Restoring historical moose densities results in fewer wolves killed for woodland caribou conservation British Columbia - Journal of Wildlife Management, 2024
... Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) are declining across much of their distribution in Canada in response to habitat alteration, leading to unsustainable predation, particularly by wolves .... Elevated moose abundance thus has the potential to cause wolf populations to rebound quickly each year following reductions ...
Wildlife Spotlight: Saving South America's Most Distinguished Deer October 27, 2024 Chile, Forbes
... the huemul. Also known as the South Andean deer, this elusive animal is prominently featured in the Chilean national coat of arms ... teetered on the brink of extinction just a few years ago ... due to rampant overhunting ... the Huilo Huilo Foundation acted as a crucial catalyst for conservation efforts ...
After drop in recent years, Utah seeks new ways to improve mule deer population October 26, 2024 Utah, KSL
... since the state implemented its latest mule deer management plan in 2019.
Extreme drought conditions developed a year later and lingered into 2023, playing a major role in the state's population tumble. The 2022-23 winter and its record snowpack didn't help the situation, either. All of it exacerbated ongoing issues impacting deer, including predation ..,
Changing habitat a major factor in the decline of deer October 17, 2024 Minnesota, The Timberjay
... [northern Minnesota] Deer populations boomed for a time in the wake of logging, but as the second growth forests matured, deer numbers began to decline. By the 1970s, our region’s deer herd was at a low ebb as the mixed-aspen forest type, which then made up about 50 percent of the landscape here, had become overwhelmingly mature due to limited markets for timber... over the 15-20 years since the plant closures, all those aspen acres have grown up to the point where they offer little in the way of deer habitat ...
California wolves' stunning return: a new pack and furious ranchers October 13, 2024 San Francisco Chronicle
... In the past year ... the population has soared, with at least eight packs ... now established as far south as Tulare County ... Part of the reason for the preponderance of cows in the diet of wolves is believed to be a lack of preferred prey. California’s elk numbers are low, while deer have been in decline for decades...
DNR listens to concerns over declining deer population October 9, 2024 Michigan, WZMQ
... concerns about the fragile ecosystem in the UP [Upper Peninsula] ... Bryan Reynolds of the UP Whitetails Association explains: “Our deer populations are as low as it’s been in many, many, years, and that part of that is habitat loss, hunting regulations, and predation by wolves and coyotes,” ... Eastern UP Advisory Council Chair Thomas Buckingham: "In the Eastern UP, there are areas where it’s almost low to no deer numbers,” ..,
The deer factory October 7, 2024 California, Western Outdoor News
... “Deer factory” is a bygone term for the northern remote mountains of California ... “We remember the old days when we took our families to the winter ranges to see the ‘Big Old Bucks’ who made it through the season.” Today, few bucks are seen. The shear greater numbers of deer we would see have vanished largely in our public lands...
DNR deer hunting restrictions aim to reverse declining population in western Iowa October 7, 2024 Iowa Public Radio
... We were harvesting too many does for too long in those western Iowa counties, and that brought the population down to what's known as a bottleneck, where it didn't take much after that. Just really one disease outbreak in 2013, 2012 to really put that population at a troubling spot..,
Drones prove useful for marsh deer counts October 7, 2024 Brazil, The Wildlife Society
... Drones provide a cost-effective, minimally invasive way for researchers to study threatened marsh deer populations and their habitat... the largest cervid species in the Neotropics ... in Brazil, these deer face a number of issues, including habitat reduction and fragmentation due to agriculture, cattle ranching and hydroelectric dams. Their populations have also been hit by illegal hunting ...
Novel evidence that elk were historically native to the Sierra Nevada, and recent range expansions into the region - PloS one, 2024
... Taken in total, a variety of data sources suggest elk inhabited portions of the Sierra Nevada and the adjacent northwest Great Basin from the Late Holocene through historical times. Positive records were not numerous, suggesting that historically elk were not abundant, and nearly extirpated during the California Fur Rush of the early nineteenth century...
Missing out on mule deer in southeastern Montana September 5, 2024 Montana Free Press
... According to a 2023 report by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the mule deer population in Region 7 ... is down 41% from its 10-year average...drought, winterkill and Chronic Wasting Disease, for example. Similarly, FWP’s ability to address predation by coyotes, mountain lions and bears is limited... conservation groups including the Mule Deer Foundation ... says there is one critical component of the decline that FWP can fix: overhunting..,
Weaving Indigenous and Western knowledge systems to discern drivers of mooz (moose) population decline - People and Nature, 2024, Ontario
... there was agreement among knowledge systems on the importance of climate change and disease and parasites in explaining moose
population decline in Ontario ...
Minnesota DNR holds steady or decreases doe permits for 2024 deer hunt August 17, 2024 Echo Press
... Even after the mildest winter on record, biologists say the northern deer herd is still down after recent tough winters... Combined with steady pressure from predators like wolves, black bears and bobcats, the harsh winters have held deer numbers down for more than a decade ..,
N.S. researchers continue to map deer brain worms that kill moose August 5, 2024 Nova Scotia, CBC.ca
... Over half of white tail deer surveyed in Nova Scotia were infected by the meningeal worm ... "We're very interested in trying to find ways to manage the moose population so they don't go extinct on the mainland," said Shutler. "And now, of course, there's concerns about them going extinct in Cape Breton, given the dramatic decrease we've seen in populations." ...
A black bear hunt will help tremendously. Opening the Big South Fork to hunting would help even more. July 31, 2024 Tennessee, Independent Herald
... it’s probably not coincidence that populations of deer and other forms of wildlife have decreased in the BSF (Big South Fork) as the bear population has flourished... black bears are just as over-populated inside the BSF as outside it...
Western Iowa's antlerless deer quotas dropping in effort to increase herd size July 12, 2024 Radio Iowa
... The DNR’s Tyler Harms oversees the state deer populations and told the commission one of the reasons for the big drop in western Iowa’s deer herd is overhunting. “It’s very obvious that overharvest over an extended period of time from really the mid 2000s to the early 2010s contributed to the population decline,” ...
FWP Director Addresses State Of Mule Deer In Eastern Montana July 3, 2024 Montana, The Glasgow Courier
... For Region 5, the numbers are below the long-term average but are trending higher... As for Region 6, where spring survey results are 16 percent below long-term average, FWP is reducing B licenses by 54 percent. Lastly, Region 7 spring survey results show an increase of 20 percent over the last year, but total numbers are still 40 percent below long-term average ..,
Collaborators join in juniper removal efforts to improve wildlife habitat and natural regeneration June 14, 2024 Wyoming, Wyoming Tribune Eagle
... Aggressive wildfire suppression has allowed juniper encroachment to become widespread in Wyoming and many western states... The Baggs Juniper treatment area, encompassing 5,404 acres, receives high winter use by mule deer, which along with juniper encroachment, has resulted in downward trends in shrub community health as documented through monitoring since 1988...
Iowa DNR Hosts Meetings Across Western Iowa to Address Deer Population Decline June 14, 2016 Western Iowa Today
... State wildlife experts recognize that multiple factors may have contributed to the decline in deer numbers... “In hindsight, we acknowledge that an excessive doe harvest was encouraged for too long in western Iowa. Furthermore, significant outbreaks of hemorrhagic disease over the past decade, coupled with changes in land cover leading to reduced habitat ..,
Spring black bear harvest and predation pressure on moose calves in a multi‐predator system 2024, Minnesota, The Journal of Wildlife Management
... moose ... has recently declined in Minnesota ... Mean proportion of calf predation attributed to bears was 4.9 times higher (30% vs. 6%) in the years when a spring bear hunt was not held. Despite an increasing wolf density during the study period, we did not observe compensatory increase in wolf predation during spring bear hunt years. The results of this work suggest that the addition of a spring bear hunt,
during a time when moose calves are most vulnerable to bear predation, has the potential to increase moose calf survival even in the presence of wolves...
Non-residents harvest more mule deer bucks than residents June 13, 2024 Montana, Missoula Current
... the increase in non-resident hunters and the uptick of licenses available appear to be major factors in the increase in harvests and decrease in mule deer populations. Drought is also a significant contributor ...
Video Below: The Long-Term Decline in Mule Deer Populations: Primary Challenges Facing Mule Deer. Wyoming Game and Fish. June 10, 2024
Deer Herd Numbers Declining in Western Iowa June 3, 2024 Western Iowa Today
... The deer harvest figures showed a significant decline in 2023 compared to the previous year... Pottawattamie County declined 33 percent, Cass County 26 percent, Adair County 20 percent, Montgomery County 29 percent, and Adams County 21 percent..,
Parasitic Worms Spread by Flies Identified as Potential Cause Behind Dwindling American Moose Populatin June 1, 2024 Idaho, The Western Journal on MSN
... Research published in March in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases found a parasitic worm, Elaeophora schneideri, in half of the dead adult Shiras moose studied in southeastern Idaho, although it wasn't found in any of the moose bodies investigated in the northern part of the state...
Mule deer decline and management strategies are hot topics at first Sportsperson Conservation Forum May 24, 2024 Wyoming Public Media
... It's almost like this “death by a thousand cuts” kind of an analogy. When you look at things like wildlife disease, like chronic wasting disease (CWD); and then you look at continued human presence and human-dominated landscapes with urban sprawl, and more subdivisions and more development in many different ways, whether it be roads or fences or energy development ...
Female Deer Movements Relative to Firearms Hunting in Northern Georgia, USA - Animals, 2024
... Deer populations within the Chattahoochee National Forest of northern Georgia, USA, have declined significantly since the 1980s... Our results suggest that the low level of hunting pressure in our study area led to no biologically significant changes in female deer movements...
