Deer shortage

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by slingshot

I agree with desert eagle

"Lots of tracks but numbers are down"? You agree with that statement?

Possibly that came out wrong and its not what he meant to say, but on face value alone I don't know how I could agree with that. To me "numbers" mean the amount of deer that are around, not the amount you are seeing or the amount that are killed. If there are lots of tracks then you probably have healthy deer population, if you are having trouble finding them during legal light that doesn't mean that they aren't there, and it doesn't mean that "numbers are down".

I hunted a pretty good chunk of northern Alberta this season and game numbers were good everywhere I went. Conditions weren't always ideal and sometimes I had trouble connecting, but so long as I looked hard enough the animals were definitely there and doing well.

[Popcan]

Originally Posted by Nyksta

10x the deer this year compared to last year.

That's what our farmer friend says in 503. But nothing fancy so far at their place. Sounds encouraging. Heading south here right away. Probably see something... Maybe even something Fancy.

[Diesel_wiesel]

MY daughter hunts 348 346 and 507
she was saying the deer numbers were way down , it wouldn't surprise her if they went to a draw for WT deer in those areas
I live on the far east side of central SK
WT deer are almost extinct in this zone even during the summer there wasn't any around, yet the next zone south of here has an over abundance of WT deer, that has a lot to do with types of crops, this year most crops were canola WT deer and elk don't do well on canola straw , yet south of here the zone has mainly cattle farmers more lentils , and cereal grains, only stands to reason they go and thrive where the food is abundant

[wildwoods]

It's amazing to me how many of these threads pop up every year in regards to almost every conceivable WMU. You can't base numbers on the boom year you saw 12 years ago and say numbers are down. You can't hunt for one long weekend in November and make any prognosis either. Unless you've spent a TON of time scouting in your area over the course of many years at DIFFERENT times of the year, you have really no basis for your "results". I'm not saying the OP or anyone in particular are not doing that. However, there are obviously a lot of uneducated, anecdotal responses with next to zero fact backing it up. You didn't see a 160" deer this weekend. It's ok, your numbers are probably fine....
I've hunted the North country for about 8 or 9 years now. I've seen what I've perceived as boom and bust years. But that is way too small a sample size to get on AO and make statements regarding populations. Case in point: I couldn't walk without bumping tons of deer in late August to late October in my area. In November we were hard pressed to see anything but elk. Thankfully I had been scouting the area on foot and with cameras all summer. I knew they were there, just had to locate them. Had I only hunted November, I would have said, "it's a terrible numbers year!"
Let's stop and think about it a little.....

[Snm]

No shortage in some of my areas. Where there was a shortage there were plenty of wolf tracks to make up the deficit.

[Desert Eagle]

Originally Posted by wildwoods

It's amazing to me how many of these threads pop up every year in regards to almost every conceivable WMU. You can't base numbers on the boom year you saw 12 years ago and say numbers are down. You can't hunt for one long weekend in November and make any prognosis either. Unless you've spent a TON of time scouting in your area over the course of many years at DIFFERENT times of the year, you have really no basis for your "results". I'm not saying the OP or anyone in particular are not doing that. However, there are obviously a lot of uneducated, anecdotal responses with next to zero fact backing it up. You didn't see a 160" deer this weekend. It's ok, your numbers are probably fine....
I've hunted the North country for about 8 or 9 years now. I've seen what I've perceived as boom and bust years. But that is way too small a sample size to get on AO and make statements regarding populations. Case in point: I couldn't walk without bumping tons of deer in late August to late October in my area. In November we were hard pressed to see anything but elk. Thankfully I had been scouting the area on foot and with cameras all summer. I knew they were there, just had to locate them. Had I only hunted November, I would have said, "it's a terrible numbers year!"
Let's stop and think about it a little.....

I agree with that for sure. I'm out in the bush for work and recreation almost daily. The numbers have plummeted in the areas I frequent. There was small pockets of large numbers just before rifle season opened, but one in particular had wolves come in and spread them out. However for the remainder of areas I travel through the numbers are much lower than normal. The boom cycle there were multiple nights over the year you would see over 100 deer in an hour drive. We are now down to one or none. There is many reasons for this, but one large factor is the cougar. One area in particular had 3 cats than lived and stayed in a pretty small area as the deer were concentrated there. When they consume at least a deer a week each that's a pretty significant number.