Each year, thousands of hunters head into the woods come fall, hoping for the same outcome: They all want to be able to answer the age-old question, “Get your deer, yet?” in the affirmative.
Deer season is nearly upon us — youth hunters get to head afield Saturday, while Maine residents have their own opener on Oct. 29 — and according to the state’s deer biologist, hunters will have a pretty good shot at succeeding this year.
Kyle Ravana of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife said he thinks this year’s deer harvest will be between 23,000 and 24,000 animals. If that proves to be the case, that’ll be a marked improvement over last season’s total of 20,300 deer taken by hunters.
The big reason for his optimism: The deer herd is healthy and growing.
“We’re definitely on the upswing since the 2008 and 2009 winters,” Ravana said, referring to a two-year span during which an estimated 60,000 deer died because of harsh weather. “We’re close to our long-term average [deer population] in the state of Maine.”
Ravana said harsh winters in 2014 and 2015 didn’t take the same kind of toll. He estimated the current deer herd at around 200,000.
“Given how mild the this past winter was … we might even be a little bit higher,” Ravana said.
Bowhunters have been allowed to hunt since September, but the state’s firearms season, during which the highest number of hunters will be in the woods, roughly covers the month of November. After that, some will continue to target deer with muzzleloaders for a week or two, depending on which part of the state they hunt.
And while there are parts of the state with more deer than average, or fewer, Ravana said early reports are good.
“In a couple of different areas this year, I’ve seen does with triplets, which is a pretty good sign that the animals are pretty healthy,” Ravana said. “And people are seeing a lot of deer. The deer are looking healthy, in terms of their weight and build.”
Best times to fill a tag
So, you really, really want to fill your tag this year. Ravana said one specific day, along with one particular week, will give advantages to different groups of hunters seeking to put meat in the freezer.
That day, he said, is Saturday — Youth Deer Day — during which the state’s junior hunters will have the woods to themselves, as long as they’re accompanied by an adult.
“Research has shown that the first day of hunting season is one of the best days to get your buck,” Ravana said. “From then on, your chances of getting your animal go down. So being able to devote that first day to the youth is a huge thing.”
Ravana said that about 700 deer are typically taken by hunters on Youth Deer Day each year. And although adults aren’t allowed to carry a firearm that day, each youth has an adult present, so the hunt turns into a group effort enjoyed by all.
An added bonus: This year, two Wildlife Management Districts that did not offer any-deer permits last year — WMD 7 and WMD 13 — will have a small allotment of those permits. That means that on Youth Deer Day junior hunters will be allowed to target deer of either gender, even without an any-deer permit.
“Because we’re increasing the opportunity to hunters in general, youth hunters will also benefit by that because they can also go out and harvest a doe and increase their chances [of success] on Youth Deer Day,” Ravana said.
For those who won’t be headed out with a youth this season on Youth Deer Day, the other time with the greatest chance of success isn’t a real secret: Hunting during the peak of “the rut,” or mating season, has been a well-known tactic for generations of deer hunters.
But when, exactly, will the rut take place?
Ravana explained that photoperiod — the amount of daylight in a given day — helps determine the rut.
“When these deer breed in nature, they’re going to want to fawn at a time when the fawn’s most likely to survive,” Ravana said. “That photoperiod is kind of nature’s way of telling them when to breed so that the fawn will be born at a time 200 days later when it will most likely survive, because spring is there and spring greenup has arrived.”
The countback of 200 days means that the vast majority of breeding will take place during the third week of November, Ravana said.
And he has proof.
“We’re getting [data] from looking at roadkill does during the wintertime,” he explained. “We look at the fetuses [that the does are carrying], and by looking at the length and weight of the fetus, we can back-calculate when that fetus was conceived; 90 percent of the fawns that we look at are conceived during that third week of November.
There can be some extreme fluctuation, though.
“This year I just had a photo sent to me of a buck servicing a doe at the end of September, which is really early,” Ravana said. “We’ve also collected fetuses and back-aged them to [conception during] the first week of February, which is very late.”
