Hunters might harvest less deer

Deer hunters in Indiana harvested a record 136,248 deer in 2012. In four of the last five seasons, the deer harvest record has been exceeded, but that is not expected to be the case this year.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if it was down a little this year,”  said Chad Stewart, Indiana Department of Natural Resources deer research biologist, in a press release. “But I don’t expect the harvest numbers to fall off a cliff.”

Stewart believes numbers might be down this year because hunters killed a record number of female deer last year, which might have caused less fawns to be born.

For more information, visit Hunting.IN.gov.

— Sydney Murray