8/29/2007

2006-2007 AGFC deer season summary now available

LITTLE ROCK – The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has recently published it’s annual deer season summary report for the 2006-2007 season. For the fourth consecutive year, harvest numbers continue to go up around the state.

AGFC deer biologist Cory Gray said the report gives the hunting public and biologists a good picture of the health of the state’s deer herd. “We use this information as a tool to make educated decisions about the deer population. Hunters have the same the information we have to help the commission make wise decisions when deer season lengths and bag limits are proposed,” Gray said.

Here are a few of the highlights from the report:

*A total of 165,663 deer were harvested in the 2006-2007 deer season. This represents a 25% increase from the 2005-2006 harvest of 132,415. The buck harvest increased 26% (90,028) from the 2005-2006 harvest of 71,253. The doe harvest increased 28% (47,778 to 61,179) from the previous season.

*Herd health data show kidney fat indices ranging from a low of 59% in the Ouachita Mountains to a high of 108% in the Arkansas River Valley. The Ozark Mountains showed the earliest peak rut at Nov. 5. The latest peak rut was observed in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley on Nov. 26.

*Average dressed body weight for adult bucks ranged from 109 pounds in the West Gulf Coastal Plain and Ouachita Mountains to 131 pounds in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission 2006-2007 Deer Season Summary is also available on the agency’s web site in Portable Document Format (PDF) at http://www.agfc.com/data-facts-maps/reports.aspx.