Answer:

At http://www.gov.ns.ca/natr/wildlife/sumindex.htm#deer you can see deer harvest by county for the past 8 years. At the bottom of the table you will find total licence sales and overall hunter success rates by year.

At http://www.gov.ns.ca/natr/draws/deerdraw/ click on Statistics and you can see the number of antlerless deer permits issued by year as well as the number of applications and draw success rate by Deer Management Zone.

Harvest results for fall 2003 will not be available until near the end of January and at that time will likely come out as a press release along with moose and bear harvest numbers and safety record for the year. ( To the best of my knowledge, so far this year there have been no hunter firearm related accidents in Nova Scotia.)

Following are population size estimates for the full province vs. Cape Breton Island for years 1998 - 2003.

Though our annual spring population estimate program is designed to generate a provincial deer population size, I have included numbers for Cape Breton Island only as well. Deer number estimates for portions of the province (i.e. Cape Breton Island) will have a larger margin of error, however the trend information should still be valid.

(Note: Population estimates are achieved by a long standing spring pellet group count, conducted shortly after snow melt and before green-up. This is before fawns are dropped which will initially increase herd size by approximately 45 to 50 %. However, there is normally high fawn mortality in the first weeks of their lives and again during late winter which can be greater than 50% in winters having long periods of deep snow.)

The decrease in overall herd size for the province and for Cape Breton Island , can be attributed to the severity of recent winters. Cape Breton in particular has experienced very deep snows in recent years.

Some people are suggesting all deer hunting be suspended until the herd recovers. However, closing or shortening the hunting season is not considered necessary or an appropriate action to remedy the effects of a natural event of this nature. Current regulations allow us to reduce harvest of does and fawns where and to the extent necessary. By further reducing the number of antlerless deer hunting stamps (ADHS), herd growth potential is accommodated while still allowing hunters the opportunity to hunt adult bucks throughout the province. In this situation hunters realize their success rate will be low but to kill an animal is not the primary objective of most hunters. No doubt some will choose not to hunt until deer numbers increase but it is important to provide that opportunity and all other aspects of deer hunting to the many thousands of hunters who are such strong supporters of good wildlife management.

For your information.
TN

Regards,
Tony
______________________
Anthony (Tony) L. Nette
Manager, Wildlife Resources
Wildlife Division
136 Exhibition Street,
Kentville, Nova Scotia
Canada
B4N 4E5