Since 2002, the state’s junior hunters have been allowed a head start on the rest of us thanks to the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife’s Youth Deer Day.
According to tradition, the Saturday before the residents-only opening day of the firearms season on deer — Oct. 24 this year — belongs to those junior hunters and the adults who accompany them into the woods.
The adults aren’t allowed to carry guns and are responsible for the actions of their young understudy.
This year, there has been an important change in the Youth Deer Day regulations that will apply to plenty of youngsters (and their mentors).
In past years, Youth Deer Day rules essentially allowed kids to hunt as if they had an any-deer permit in their pocket, whether they did or not.
This year, that’s not the case. That rule has changed, and many of the state’s young hunters will be observing a “bucks only” rule when they head afield on Saturday.
Here’s what you need to know: If your young understudy is hunting in a Wildlife Management District where the state has decided to allot any-deer permits this year, the young hunter can shoot an antlerless deer, if they choose, on Youth Deer Day.
If you’re hunting in a WMD that is bucks-only during the regular firearms season on deer, Youth Deer Day is also bucks-only.
If you’re reading this column, chances are good that your youngster will be hunting in a bucks-only district.
This year, after two straight severe winters took a high toll on deer in the northern part of the state, the DIF&W has responded by reducing the number of any-deer permits — “doe permits” to many Mainers — and the majority of the state’s WMDs are now bucks-only.
In fact, any-deer permits have been allotted in only 11 of the state’s 29 WMDs.
Those districts: 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 and 29.
The demarcation of those zones essentially lops off the northern and eastern tiers of the state. The zones with any-deer permits are in central and southern Maine.
Each year as deer season approaches, I do the best I can to let readers know about specific events that may well determine how successful their Saturday hunts end up.
You can’t hunt well, I figure, if you head into the woods hungry.
Hunter’s breakfasts fill that void, and play an important role in the state’s hunting tradition. Various organizations sponsor the meals every year, and numerous hunters take advantage of the feeds each weekend of the season.
Heck, last year I heard from a makeshift motorcycle gang (they were led by a mild-mannered banker … don’t be alarmed) that made a point of attending and critiquing as many breakfasts as they could during November.
There is a catch, however.
If you don’t tell me about your organization’s meal, I can’t let our readers know about it.
And as of Wednesday — with Youth Deer Day just three days away and residents-only opening day only a week and a half in the future — I’ve received very few notices of upcoming feasts.
If you’re planning to feed the masses this deer season, your time is running out on getting word to the region’s hungry hunters.
You can send e-mail to the address below, or regular mail to me at Bangor Daily News, PO Box 1329, Bangor, 04401-1329.
We’ll need to know all the particulars, including the place, time and price of the meal.
For this weekend, I’ll start you off with a Youth Deer Day breakfast that’s sure to warm the belly of your young hunter.
• At Orrington on Saturday, Boy Scout Troop 44 will hold a breakfast from 5-9 a.m. at the East Orrington Congregational Church on Johnson Mill Road. The cost of admission is $5 and proceeds will benefit Troop 44.
From the pile of press releases that ends up on my desk each week, this nifty tidbit I couldn’t resist passing along: Black bears love minivans. Absolutely love ’em.
According to a release from the Journal of Mammalogy, scientists studied the cars that were most frequently broken into by black bears in that park.
Over a seven-year span, scientists kept track, by make and model, of the cars that the food-seeking bears targeted most often.
Of the 908 vehicles broken into at Yosemite between 2001 and 2007, 26 percent were minivans, while 22.5 percent were sport-utility vehicles, 17.1 percent were small cars and 13.7 percent were sedans.
The news release does not mention whether there are simply more minivans than other vehicles traveling through Yosemite.
Researchers did hypothesize, however, the minivans may have been targeted for a simple reason few will debate: Minivans are often used to cart kids from place to place, and kids tend to spill their food in the car.
Therefore (ergo, as the scientists would say it) minivans likely smell like rolling food carts to the meal-seeking bruins.
The researchers also say that minivans may be structurally more susceptible to bear entry, as the bears often gained access by popping open a rear side window.
So, I’m wondering: Do all bears break into cars, or are some more prone to crime?
“A few individual bears could be responsible for all the break-ins, and they are displaying a learned behavior for choosing minivans,” according to one hypothesis mentioned in the release.
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