More than 14,000 deer hunters and others interested in deer management are logging their daily deer sightings statewide as part of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ Operation Deer Watch, which kicked off Thursday.
The effort is designed to help the DNR monitor and evaluate Wisconsin’s deer herd.
Observers are asked to report the number of does, bucks and fawns seen and include information on the grouping of the deer, the date and deer management unit where the observation took place. The DNR wants observations only from dawn to dusk.
The DNR website (dnr.wi.gov) has information for those looking to participate as well as a link to the survey.
Daily observations can be tracked on a tally sheet, which can then be used to report the observations on the survey page. Those reports to the DNR will continue until the operation ends Sept. 30.
“This is a fun and useful opportunity for the public to be the daily eyes and ears for the deer herd in their area,” wrote Brian Dhuey, DNR surveys coordinator, on the DNR’s website. “Citizens annually provide thousands of observations that the department utilizes in monitoring the herd.”
The DNR sent 14,000 randomly selected deer hunters a letter earlier this year asking them to participate.
“However, if you were not one of the hunters selected to participate we still encourage your participation to help provide insight into Wisconsin’s deer herd,” Dhuey said.
Last year observers in the 13 groups that cover the entire state recorded 2,687 does and 2,150 fawns for a .80 fawn-to-doe ratio, which was a 7 percent drop from the summer deer observation survey.
In Group K, which includes all of Shawano County, 304 does and 281 fawns were observed, which was down 7 percent from the previous survey.
Besides monitoring deer reproduction, the results are used in population modeling and will be in the summer deer observation report.
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