Hunters Enjoy Successful Season in 2007

About 44,000 licensed hunters enjoyed the woods and wetlands of Nova Scotia during last year's successful hunting season.

"Managing the wildlife populations in Nova Scotia is one of the priorities of our department," said Natural Resources Minister David Morse. "We rely on the help of the hunting community to keep a healthy population of diverse wildlife species in our forests."

Hunters took 8,462 bucks and 1,613 antlerless deer during the fall 2007 hunt, for a total of 10,075 deer harvested. That is up from 9,491, in 2006 and 7,200 in 2005. Lunenburg County once again reported the highest number of deer harvested, at 1,923, followed by Colchester County at 1,126.

Despite an increase in deer taken from zone 2A, which includes south shore lands in Lunenburg and Queens Counties, the deer population in that area remains high. This continues to create problems for communities, especially in the Town of Lunenburg. The over-population of deer in the area causes upwards of 500 motor vehicle accidents every year.

"We are encouraged by the high number of deer taken from zone 2A, but there is still a lot of work to be done," said Mr. Morse. "We will continue working with the hunting community on this issue as part of our efforts to moderate the deer population in that zone."

All hunters are permitted to hunt antlered bucks throughout the province. The deer population is managed, however, through a zone system that limits the number of people allowed to hunt antlerless deer based on total regional deer populations. Antlerless hunting stamps were available in only three of the seven deer-management zones in 2007.

"Each spring, the department conducts an annual review to find out how the winter affected the herd condition. Based on this review, later this spring, we will announce how many antlerless deer hunting stamps will be available for the 2008 deer hunting season," said Mr. Morse.

Harvest statistics for the 2007 moose and bear seasons have also been released.

Last fall, 345 moose hunting licences were offered within the four moose-management zones in Cape Breton and overall, hunters took 264 moose for a 77 per cent success rate.

Also in 2007, an estimated total of 884 bears were harvested by 3,024 hunters. Bear hunting licence sales have increased in recent years in response to a longer hunting season and more bears.

"The support we receive from hunters and the compliance with our policies and regulations help manage some wildlife species before increasing populations become a serious problem," said Mr. Morse.

"Our efforts to moderate the number of deer, bears and moose in certain areas helps reduce property damage, human safety concerns and vehicle collisions."

Detailed information on all hunting and harvesting statistics can be found on the department website at www.gov.ns.ca/natr/wildlife/sumindex.htm .