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Hunters hoping for a shot at a quality deer during the 2008-09 deer season will need to get off the bench and into the game, suggest state wildlife biologists, as current range conditions indicate increased availability of native food sources.

The general deer hunting season opens statewide November 1st. This change in deer feeding patterns could also have had an impact on opportunity around feeders during the Special Youth Season weekend that was held October 25-26. The youth-only season is available to licensed hunters ages 16 and under.

“It could be one of those years when it’s not in the favor of somebody who doesn’t like to leave the corn feeder,” said Mitch Lockwood, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department white-tailed deer program leader. “We’re getting reports, mainly from the Hill Country, that indicate another good acorn crop and it looks similar to what we had three years ago when the acorns fell in three stages, which should spread the drop over an extended period.”

Rainfall across much of the state in August helped quench parched country and recent rains have generated new plant growth biologists say should improve deer body condition heading into the season.

“It is amazing how quickly these deer can recover,” said Lockwood, alluding to drought conditions that extended across much of the state during the first half of the year. “We’re not seeing the impacts from the drought we did 20 years ago, no major die-offs, thanks mostly to current wildlife management practices.”

Of course, nature also has a way of taking care of its own.

During the 2007-08 deer season, Texas hunters killed about 512,800 whitetails, the lowest harvest in a decade and down more than 90,000 from the previous season.

Lockwood attributes much of the harvest decline to extremely good habitat conditions, which meant deer did not need to travel much for food and water.

“The thing to look for this season is carryover from last year because harvest was down quite a bit,” he noted. “Harvest numbers and better age structure should be up this year, especially in those counties where we have antler restrictions.”

Here’s what TPWD biologists around the state are saying about this year’s prospects in their areas:

South Texas

You could have asked any of the TPWD wildlife biologists in South Texas back in March to predict what the fall hunting season would be like and most, if not all, would have given a marginal to fair outlook.

“From the 2007 Labor Day Weekend through April 20, 2008 we received barely an inch of rain,” said Jimmy Rutledge of the Carrizo Springs area. “While the entire South Texas region experienced this extended dry spell, the western portion was hardest hit by the drought.”

The effects were felt well into mid spring as many species of brush with shallow root systems, such as granjeno and hogplum were lying dormant in need of relief. Conditions such as this do not bode well for antler development or fawn production in white-tailed deer. Looking at recent conditions, however, it would be difficult to see any signs of drought conditions from this past winter and early spring. Hurricane Dolly dumped excessive rainfall in the lower Rio Grande Valley and contributed to abundant rainfall across the rest of South Texas throughout August, adding to some of the earlier rains that fell in July. Habitat has improved dramatically and will provide great benefits to many of the game species in South Texas.

Across the South Texas region consensus is white-tailed deer antler quality may be good despite the dry spring conditions.

Deer did not have to work hard to build up body reserve to support fawn rearing and antler development this summer.

Rutledge expects white-tailed fawn survival to be above average with the improved range conditions and abundant cover. Hunters may expect to find a good number of 1 ½-year-old bucks as a result of a good fawn crop from 2007. Decent fawn crops from 2002 and 2004 should also result in a fair number older age class bucks in the 4 ½ or 6 ½-year-old categories.

Despite the fairly abundant food resources as a result of the summer rains, the recent dry spell will encourage deer to utilize corn feeders. Thus hunters might have good harvest success this season. However hunters should not discount alternative hunting strategies instead of the old standby corn feeder. Look for well used trails or natural feeding areas to find deer, especially when trying to locate those older age class bucks that are wise to hunter activities.

If you’re a hunter looking for quality antlers, be cognizant of those ranches or hunting leases where population management and maintaining deer numbers below the carrying capacity of habitat is a primary concern. Well managed properties that have in place sound wildlife habitat management programs, practices, and plans usually reap the benefits during the fall hunting seasons. These examples of good land stewardship usually stand out during stressful times.

Central Texas

Rainfall amounts throughout Central Texas have been below average since early last fall when the faucet was turned off after the exceptionally wet spring and summer of 2007, according to Mike Krueger, TPWD district biologist in Kerrville. Deer did not come through the winter in as good as nutritional condition as they would have with a wet winter, so they undoubtedly were not in optimum condition when bucks initiated antler growth last spring and does were entering the last stages of pregnancy.

“It continued to remain dry during the antler growing and fawn rearing period this summer and because of this, I expect fawn survival and recruitment will be below average,” said Krueger. “Ditto with antler quality; I expect it to be below average and too late to salvage even though habitat conditions have improved somewhat in recent weeks.”

Body conditions heading into the season are improving, thanks to an unexpected acorn crop.

“Nature is amazing in showing the ability to offset a set of poor conditions with a set of unexpectedly good conditions,” Krueger noted. “A decent acorn crop can put some fat on deer this winter, but it would be too late to help improve this year’s fawn production or antler quality.”

TPWD technical guidance biologist Mike Reagan in Wimberley had similar things to say about this season.

“I am seeing a lot of acorns on most ranches in my areas,” Reagan reported. “A lot of them began falling in September, but there seems to still be some on the trees. It should make hunting a little tougher. I also think antler growth will be below normal, but I have seen excellent antlers on some mature bucks. Yes, the fawn crop is well below normal in the eastern half of the Edwards Plateau. In most of this country the fawn crop ranged from 10-30 percent, but on some well-managed ranches it was more like 40-60 percent.”

In the western parts of the Hill Country, TPWD technical guidance biologist Joyce Moore in Harper had this to offer.

“The far western Hill Country counties fared much better through the drought as they had more summer rainfall,” she said. “Exceptional fawn crops of 60-100 percent are the norm in Sutton and Schleicher counties. As you travel east from Junction, however, fawn crops declined to about 40-50 percent.

“Right now the acorns and a few recent showers are saving the deer herd, but I am telling my co-op folks that unless we get more rain, the winter will be very stressful,” she pointed out. “I am hearing many reports of declining antler quality, except for the high-fence folks who are intensively feeding protein-they say their antler quality is much better than in 2007. They believe that a dry year actually causes the bucks to consume more protein feed rather than in a wet year when they would prefer native forage.”