Hunters say Coyotes tough on the deer herd

by BILL COCHRAN 
Wednesday, May 15, 2013 

Is Virginia's deer herd in decline? Yes said half the hunters who participated in a recent Virginia Deer Hunters Association membership survey. Only three percent said the herd is increasing while 47 percent said it has remained about the same in recent years. 

When asked how the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries should manage the herd, 12 percent said efforts should be made to increase it; 53 percent said it should be held at current levels and five percent recommended decreasing the herd. 

Coyote predation was cited as the No. 1 reason for the decline in deer numbers. Loss of habitat ranked second. 

Fifty-nine percent of the survey participants said they saw a coyote while deer hunting this past season; 15 percent reported killing a coyote. 

"Our association has been completing surveys and asking our members tough questions for more than 20 years," said Denny Quaiff, executive director of the association, which was formed in 1985. One tough question that wasn't included in the 2013 survey was the Sunday hunting issue, a subject that has sharply divided members in past surveys. 

Seventy-seven percent of the participants said they practiced quality deer management; meaning they passed up small bucks in order to give them a chance to mature and grow larger antlers. Perhaps the biggest surprise of all, 60 percent of the participants said they favored an antler-point restriction that would require at least one buck in the bag limit to have a minimum of four points on one side before it is a legal target. Forty percent said no to that. 

Fifty-five percent said that would support a regulation that required a deer hunter to kill a doe before a second buck could be taken. 

Members were opposed to hunting over bait (57 percent), but 64 percent said they were involved in planting food plots and 60 percent favored year-round supplementary feeding. Twenty-two percent opposed year-round feeding and 18 percent said it didn't matter. Feeding currently is prohibited Sept. 1 though the first Saturday in January. 

Just over half the participants said doe days should remain as they are while 12 percent said they should be increased and 35 percent decreased.