COCKBURN ISLAND—This year’s deer hunt on Cockburn Island will go down as one of the worst in terms of the number of deer seen, and harvested.
“Things were pretty slow with the reduction in the number of antlerless deer tags provided this year,” said Jeff Horula, a conservation officer (CO) with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF). “There were only 106 hunters on hand the first week.” He pointed out that 100 doe tags had been available for the hunt, and the weather didn’t cooperate, which made it impossible for COs to get out to do any enforcement activities until Friday of the first week and hardly at all for the second week of the hunt (which ended November 14).
Ian Anderson, a former CO with the MNRF who hunted during the Cockburn Island deer hunt, told the Recorder, “the total deer kill during last year’s hunt was 78 for approximately 160 hunters. For this year, during the first week there were approximately 106 hunters on hand and as of Friday 15 deer had been taken.”
“Part of that reduction is that the number of antlerless tags was decreased substantially from last year to this year’s hunt,” said Mr. Anderson. “Hunters saw very few deer this year with a combination of a very severe winter and high population of predator animals, especially coyotes.”
“This is all to be expected when you consider the last winter we had was one, if not the worst, in the past 100 years for the area,” continued Mr. Anderson. “And nothing was done by the MNRF to assist the deer (over the winter) so this was a really good example of letting nature take its course.”
“We may be in line for the all-time lowest harvest on Cockburn Island this year,” said Mr. Anderson. “It will be substantially less than half of last year’s harvest, maybe an all-time low since records were kept back to the 1970s. It is all a clear indicator of the severity of the winter we had last winter.”
Mr. Anderson also noted that along with the weather and prevalence of coyotes, “there is a very high black bear population on Cockburn Island, compared to Manitoulin Island. It’s like a perfect storm against deer with everything having gone against them.”
“If we are able to keep the number of antlerless tags low for the next number of years, they will return as long as predators are kept under control as well,” said Mr. Anderson. “But we’ve already seen a very early start with the winter season again this year.”
