Deer Hunter Behavior
Where deer hunter behavior meets deer hunting opportunity: Explaining harvest success rates during the 9-day gun season
The annual white-tailed deer harvest totals in Wisconsin are often compared from year to year as a measure of hunter success and satisfaction as well as an indicator to the status of the deer herd in the state. However, the behaviors of hunters both before and during the hunting season can influence their harvest success during the 9-day gun season, and these hunter attitudes and behaviors have not been fully integrated into Wisconsin hunter harvest success rates in the past. The goal of this project is to develop and test a model which integrates hunter characteristics and behaviors with the season’s extrinsic factors (e.g., deer density, weather, etc.) to predict and explain individual hunter harvest success rates during the 9-day gun season. The factors affecting hunter harvest are likely different for the harvest of antlerless deer versus the harvest of antlered deer, so two separate models will be developed. The results of this study will continue to clarify hunter harvest selectivity, and will provide context to hunter harvest rates during the 9-day gun season.
Project Lead
Funding and Partners
- Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
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