2006-07 deer Report - Arkansas Game and Fish Commission

Executive Summaryin the Mississippi Alluvial Valley; the lowestadult lactation was 58 percent in the OuachitaMountains. Antler index is the sum of total numberof points, inside spread, left beam length, and leftbeam circumference. The highest average score was47 on Crowley’s Ridge; the lowest average score was39 in the West Gulf Coastal Plain.Herd Health Data SummaryHerd health data provides information on herdhealth conditions, timing of the rut, and fawnproduction. For 2007, the average number of fetusesproduced was highest in the Ozarks (2.0) andthe lowest was in the Ouachita Mountains (1.16).Kidney Fat Indices (KFI) range from a high of127 percent in the Ozark Mountains to a low of33 percent in the Ouachita Mountains. Kidney fatdeposits can be used to evaluate physical conditionsof animals coming out of winter stress enteringspring green-up. Mast production and weatherconditions will determine amount of fat depositsprior to spring. The minimum desired average KFIfor a sampling period of February through April is35 percent.The peak rut in 2006 was similar when comparedto the five-year average in some areas. TheOzark Mountains showed the earliest peak rut atNovember 5. The latest peak rut in Arkansas wasin the Mississippi Alluvial Valley on November26. This is common. Deer in the delta and battureregions of Arkansas have historically bred latercompared to other regions. Some biologists believethe reason for this late rutting is because historicalflooding results in fawns being born later or afterthe water recedes.and antler structure. This kind of population data,along with biological data from harvested deer,provides a more detailed picture of the deer herdfor each region. More than 1,000 archery huntersparticipated in the survey and collected more than14,000 hours of data. It is important to stress thatthe information presented in this report representsonly three years of observation data. Additional datawill be needed to determine trends and potentialchange related to management strategies.Chronic Wasting Disease UpdateChronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is still amajor concern and threat to Arkansas’s native deerpopulations. During 2004-06 biologists completeda random sampling of each of Arkansas’s counties.Within each county a minimum of 50 sampleswere collected from hunter-harvested deer and herdhealth deer sampled in late winter. During 2006,biologists collected samples from “hot spots” or areasof concern and worked to collect additional samplesin areas where sample collection was not adequatelydistributed geographically. To date, more than 3,700wild deer have been tested in USDA-certified labs atthe Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission andthe University of Georgia. No evidence of CWD hasbeen detected in any of these samples.Bowhunter Observation SummaryThe 2006-07 archery season was the third year inwhich hunters throughout the state collected deerobservation data. Hunter observations provide datasuch as sex ratios, deer density, fawn-to-doe ratio6