La. deer hunters lead nation in harvest of older bucks

Louisiana deer hunters who hunt lands in the state’s Deer Management Assistance Program are harvesting older bucks, and the state leads the nation in the harvest of bucks over 3.5 years of age.
Johnathan Bordelon, the program’s manager for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, said, “This is an ongoing trend, the increase in age structure. The shift is due to hunter attitudes more than anything. We have a long liberal season here. Hunters can be more selective. They can be patient and hold off. This what hunters have an interest in right now, and the DMAP structure to do that is successful.”
The program allows landowners to manage their deer populations through prescribed deer harvest which are recommended by region and program biologists from the department. Habitat surveys area conducted the lands, and suggestions are also made for habitat management. Program participants collect physical data such as age, body weight, antler development and lactation from harvested deer and the data is turned in to biologists for evaluation. The information gathered is used to identify growth and development trends and management recommendations are made regarding the herd. Each landowner’s deer data is combined with the harvest information from other program participants in the parish to develop a regional perspective, and by combining each parish’s data, the department puts together a state population report that is used in the hunting regulations development process.
While things are coming up big bucks for hunters on lands in the program, the state’s public land hunters will also have a chance to bag a big buck or doe this weekend. Thanksgiving weekend hunters may harvest either sex on many of the state’s wildlife management areas, including Thistlewaite here in St. Landry Parish and Sherburne in neighboring Pointe Coupee and St. Martin Parishes. For more information, visit www.wlf.louisiana.gov.
Each year, the Quality Deer Management Association publishes its Whitetail Report using deer harvest data from 37 states. The Louisiana deer harvest information included in the report is from the state’s deer program.
While the state leads in the harvest of bucks 3.5 years or older, Louisiana also has one of the lowest harvest rates of yearling bucks in the country. In 2013, just 15 percent of deer harvest on deer program lands were yearling bucks.
“The trend or shift toward older age management appears to be nationwide,” Bordelon said. “In the 1980s, the majority of the state’s deer harvest were deer about a year old. It was a gradual trend toward harvesting older deer. I don’t know what hunter attitudes and expectations will be in the years to come. The trend may plateau, but it is in a steady increase.”
As more older bucks are harvested, there has also been a decline in the harvest of antlerless deer. According to the QDMA report, the harvest of antlerless deer is down 34 percent from 2003 to 2013. To view the report, visit www.qdma.com.
Louisiana’s deer program started statewide during the 1981-82 deer hunting season, and the number of cooperators and land acreage in the program peaked in 2005 in the state and in St. Landry Parish. At that time, there were more than 1,800 program participant and 3,066,032 acres enrolled in the program. In 2006, statewide deer hunting regulations were changed, allowing hunters to harvest antlerless deer any day of the season across most of the state, when previously only program cooperators were allowed to harvest antlerless deer any day of the season.
“Hunters were limited to taking antlerless deer on certain days, and the regulation was changed to being able to take them any time during the season,” Bordelon said. “The regulation caused some problems for hunters who weren’t off those days or who had kids in school who wanted to hunt. The regulation went to either sex every day across most of the state.
Bordelon said the change allowing antlerless deer to be harvested any day of the season in parts of the state was responsible for some of the decline in the number of program participants.
Even with the regulation change and decrease in program participants and acreage, Bordelon said the program is still relatively popular in St. Landry Parish. Since the drop off, the state-wide and parish-wide number of participants and acreage have stabilized. There are 15 program participants in the parish and 13,423 acres enrolled, mostly in the north central and eastern part the parish. In 2005, there were 78,850 deer program acres in the parish and 70 cooperators.
“When looking at parish averages,13,000 acres is above average,” Bordelon said. “There are a lot more parishes in the state with more forested acres than St. Landry Parish. In the last eight years, there has not been much change in acres and cooperators across the state.”
Statewide, there are now 1,574,814 acres in the deer program, about half the amount enrolled at the program’s peak, and 700 cooperators.
Bordelon has watched as the amount of acreage in the program shrank, but he has also watched as the harvest of big bucks has grown.
“It increased over time,” he said. “Harvest of big bucks was in the 30 percent range in the early 2000s then it grew into well into 50 percent. Some years, it’s been over 60 percent.”
In addition to harvesting older bucks, St. Landry Parish deer program hunters are also looking good in the deer per acre harvest numbers.
“Last year, DAMP hunters harvested a deer per every 68 acres,” Bordelon said. “The average of bottomland hardwood in the state is 82. The parish average over the last 10 years is a deer per 72 acres, and in the state, it’s a deer per 77 acres. The harvest during the last 10 years is actually higher than the previous 10, but it is property-specific.”