Indiana’s deer herd is on the upswing after a 20 percent reduction during the 1990s, according to the state’s top deer biologist, Dr. Jim Mitchell at Bloomington’s Div. of Fish and Wildlife office.

“There is no question we have a strong deer herd and that there will be a lot of opportunity for hunters,” said Mitchell in a recent interview.  “We are trying to stabilize the population at an intermediate level (between the highs of the early 1990s and the post reduction years).  Exactly where that will be, I don’t know.”

Mitchell added that even the 20 percent reduction seen in the last decade wasn’t that drastic, because it was coming down from “an all-time record high.”

“I don’t expect to see an all time high population or harvest this year, but I do expect for hunters to see good numbers,” he continued.

The major change in deer hunting regulations this years is the so-called “one buck rule” where hunters will be able to harvest only one antlered deer. 

“For many, many years, taking a buck on an archery license was independent of and did not affect your ability to take a buck with a firearm license.  This year, both are tied together.  You are only allowed one antlered deer, regardless of what weapon you use,” he said.

“About half the people wanted us to make some attempt to provide more trophy animals, and the one buck rule is a response to the public request.  It was not viewed as a biological necessity, but rather trying to manage in a way that our hunters wanted.  The other half are very happy with the situation that we had.  This (new rule) is the only option they were willing to agree on.  Hunters were evenly split to leave it the way it was or make the change.  Slightly more than half wanted to make the change.  We will evaluate it after four to five years,” said Mitchell.

So if you only get one buck this year, where would the biologist look?

“We have big deer in every county.  It is, to a large extent, a matter of luck,” Mitchell said.  For the record, Owen and Greene counties have been consistent producers of trophy deer for years.  For the biggest deer, look to counties with lots of corn fields.

No discussion of deer hunting this year can go without a mention of Chronic Wasting Disease, and my interview with Mitchell was no exception.

“I don’t expect it (CWD) to impact the number of hunters in Indiana this year.  I am not aware of having any infected deer, but we will be sampling deer across the state.  We have already started the collection program, but our main effort will be during firearms season.  Hunters will be asked to donate their animal’s head for testing,” he said.

The state’s top deer scientist said that the major concern is transferring live deer from infected captive herds into so-called deer farms in Indiana.  He said that “live deer have gone from Wisconsin to Indiana, but we don’t know if they were from that (infected) area of Wisconsin.”

Mitchell said there is a “significant number” of captive deer in the northern part of the state where the Amish have a large deer farming operation. Transportation of captive deer is of great concern to biologists, because in the western states, the disease first appeared in captive herds and spread to wild ones.

Mitchell specifically asked that I clarify an earlier column about transporting deer out of the infected area in Wisconsin.  In that previous column, I mentioned that deer may have been moved out of the quarantine area in southern Wisconsin. I was referring to harvested deer.  Wisconsin officials were concerned only of the disposition of carcasses that may have been moved to other counties in the Badger State, not live deer.

“It is cause for concern, and that is why we are going to be doing the checking.  There is a tremendous amount at stake.  At this point CWD does not appear to be a human health issue, but people are concerned, and there are no guarantees that it won’t become a human health issue at some time in the future.  This is a very big issue in terms of the health of the deer herd.  We have always been concerned about stopping any disease once it gets into a free ranging wildlife population.   If Wisconsin is unsuccessful (at confining CWD)…history is that any disease spreads from one state to another,” concluded Mitchell.