ALBANY — Hunters harvested an estimated nearly 210,000 deer in the 2023-24 hunting season, down almost 10 percent from just under 232,000 deer in the 2022-23 season, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) recently reported. The 2023-24 deer harvest included more than twice as many older bucks (bucks two-and-a-half years old or […]
ALBANY — Hunters harvested an estimated nearly 210,000 deer in the 2023-24 hunting season, down almost 10 percent from just under 232,000 deer in the 2022-23 season, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) recently reported. The 2023-24 deer harvest included more than twice as many older bucks (bucks two-and-a-half years old or older) than were harvested in the early 1990s, and nearly five times as many than were harvested in 1969 when DEC first began monitoring the age structure of New York’s deer herd. “Nearly 70 percent of the bucks harvested by hunters during the 2023-24 deer hunting seasons were two years or older,” DEC Interim Commissioner Sean Mahar said in the report. “This demonstrates the continued effectiveness of DEC’s Let Young Bucks Go and Watch Them Grow campaign, and the willingness of hunters to voluntarily pass up opportunities at young bucks to improve their future opportunities to harvest older bucks.” The 2023-24 estimated deer harvest included an estimated 112,224 antlered bucks (adult males) and an estimated 97,557 antlerless deer (adult females and fawns of either sex). Statewide, this represents a nearly 4 percent dip in the antlered-buck harvest and almost 16 percent fall in the antlerless-deer harvest from last season, per the DEC. “The decrease in antlerless deer harvest, which is approximately 15 percent lower than the five-year average, is concerning because DEC manages deer populations through actions that encourage harvest of antlerless deer,” the department said in its report. “Harvesting antlerless deer helps ensure deer populations remain in balance with available habitat and do not exceed levels of public acceptance that can lead to increased crop damage, deer-vehicle collisions, and other potentially negative deer-related impacts. Harvesting antlerless deer also helps ensure deer are able meet their nutritional demands for antler development, fawn recruitment, and body growth.” The DEC said it is looking at various regulatory and non-regulatory alternatives to increase harvest of antlerless deer during future hunting seasons and encourages all deer hunters in the designated wildlife management areas to harvest at least one antlerless deer during the upcoming 2024-25 deer hunting season. DEC’s 2023-24 Deer Harvest Summary report provides tables, figures, and maps detailing the deer harvest around the state and is available at: https://dec.ny.gov/sites/default/files/2024-05/2023deerrpt.pdf