Hunting News

Deer harvest up 12 percent; no evidence of CWD

Deer harvest up 12 percent; no evidence of CWD

By New York Department of Environmental Conservation

Hunters in New York harvested an estimated 227,787 deer during the 2018-19 hunting seasons, approximately 12 percent more than the previous season.

The estimated deer take included 114,402 antlerless deer and 113,385 antlered bucks. Statewide, this represents a 20 percent increase in antlerless harvest and a 5 percent increase in buck harvest from the last season.

The increase in antlerless harvest follows a lower-than-desired antlerless harvest in 2017 and will help limit growth in areas with an overpopulation. Regionally, hunters took 28,642 deer in the Northern Zone and 199,145 deer in the Southern Zone.

With nearly 60 percent of the adult buck harvest 2.5 years or older, hunters took an estimated 66,697 older bucks, setting another record in the percentage and total number of older bucks in the harvest.

"Whether through organized deer hunting cooperatives or due to personal decisions, it's exciting to see how the voluntary choice of hunters to Let Young Bucks Go and Watch Them Grow is shifting our buck harvest," according to Commissioner Basil Seggos.

Hunters also increased the rate at which they reported their harvest in 2018, for the second year in a row. Although harvest reporting is required by law, the portion of successful hunters who report their harvest has averaged around 45 percent for the past decade.

Hunters have increased their reporting rates to 50 percent in 2017, and 51 percent in 2018. Along with theTake It—Tag It—Report It campaign, the agency has made the process of harvest reporting easier for hunters by providing phone, internet and mobile app options.

Complete information from the 2018 Deer Harvest Summary report provides tables, charts and maps detailing the deer harvest around the state is available here.

In continuing efforts to monitor Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), the Department of Environmental Conservation tested 2,483 harvested deer across the state and found no evidence of it in the herd.

"Preventing the introduction of CWD into New York is a high priority for DEC to ensure the health of our deer herd and to protect the recreational and viewing opportunities deer provide," Seggos said.

CWD has now been found in 26 states, with Mississippi and Tennessee joining the list in 2018. Environmental Conservation Police Officers (ECOs) stepped up enforcement efforts this past year, seizing and destroying hunter-killed deer brought in illegally from states where CWD has been found.

DEC has tested more than 52,000 wild white-tailed deer for CWD since 2002. In 2005, CWD was found in both captive and wild white-tailed deer in Oneida County. After intensive disease response efforts, no subsequent cases have been detected.

In the 2018-2019 surveillance period, 2,371 samples were tested from hunter-harvested deer and 112 from clinical deer that appeared sick or abnormal. DEC partners with cooperating meat processors and taxidermists in obtaining samples for testing each year.

For more of what DEC is doing and what you should know about CWD, click here.

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