Opening week of deer season shows numbers lagging

Check stations report a drop, even around popular sites.

Published online on Wednesday, Sep. 24, 2008

As expected, the first weekend of deer hunting season didn't produce head-turning results.

Although large groups of hunters milled around familiar hot spots like Wishon Village, Kaiser Pass Meadow and Cold Springs Summit, overall deer numbers continued the downward trend of recent years.

Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist Clu Cotter said 28 deer came through his check station atop the four-lane section of Highway 168 last weekend. Last year, 35 deer were checked during opening weekend. Most years, he averages about 50.

"It was a real slow opener, about like it's been the last couple of years," Cotter said.

Chuck Crane, a longtime employee at Wishon Village, said the most impressive deer he saw were two large three-point bucks, one shot near camp and the other near Spanish Mountain, and a four-pointer from nearby Dinkey Creek.

"A lot of guys got tired hunting, rented boats and started fishing," Crane said.

For the first time, hunters in deer zone D7 were required to comply with a new state law that prohibits lead ammunition in historic condor range. Zone D7 includes most of eastern Fresno and Madera counties.

DFG's enforcement branch conducted its own checkpoint Saturday at Highway 168 and Lodge Road outside Auberry.

Of the 1,011 vehicles that went through the initial screening process, 262 were checked for hunting and fishing activity. Wardens issued nine citations for violations that included over limits of trout, failure to fill out a deer tag and grouse possession without a hunting license.

There were no citations for lead ammunition.

"Most hunters were proud to show their non-lead ammunition voluntarily," Central District assistant chief John Baker said in an e-mail.

Baker added that many hunters admitted they went out without sighting their rifles with the new copper ammunition, which is more expensive than lead. Others said they split a box with friends or family to save money.

"Between me and my dad, it takes about a box of bullets to sight our guns in," said deer hunter Aaron Walls of Fresno.

Many hunters are awaiting the first winter storm and hoping it arrives before the Nov. 2 closing date for D7. Deer season in zone D8, which includes Tulare County and portions of Fresno County south of the Kings River, opens Saturday and ends Oct. 26.

But while a change in the weather would improve conditions on the ground by making the deer more accessible at lower elevations, it doesn't guarantee larger numbers.

"The deer population is down and we don't really know why," said Cotter, who studies the North Kings herd.

Contributing factors likely include habitat degradation because of decades of fire prevention and an adenovirus that Cotter believes has spread south from zones D5 and D6 during the past 12 years. Adenoviruses are are a group of contagious viruses that infect the respiratory tract.

Predators like mountain lions also play a population-reducing role, but Cotter doesn't believe they are the root cause.

"Calls about dead deer and sick deer have been higher than normal during the last couple years," Cotter said. "That's why the virus has made its way down here."