Deer hunting season begins - slow down

A scary story:
Deer hunt proposed for city
The Chronicle Journal
The number of deer in and around the city has led to problems such as increasing deer-vehicle collisions. The limited hunt is being proposed after the city ...

I would not want anyone hunting near my house. It is too dangerous, with our cats, and wildlife. Many do not understand, in the adrenaline of the hunt, how far a bullet can go.
I'd prefer some pros called in, the experts who write about safe hunting practices, and caution potentially dangerous citiots in rural place, like Muskoka Outdoors, or The Outdoors Guy, to cull the herd.
I've had friends with near-misses, and a bullet in their eavestrough.

Drive safely on our roads - somebody out there loves you

She was munching beside the highway

The deer are on the move. While they are busy into their rutting (mating) season, just to add to the chaos, hunting season begins in many places this week. Not yet gathered into their winter yards, where they huddle for warmth, they are roaming and skittish. There have been reports of incidents caused by deer on the highways and biways.

Foggy fall morning

It is no wonder, with the speed that some travel.

This morning brought a lovely touch of fog into the mix. P.S. For those who continue to use my intellectual property: All of these photos are mine,

© JENNIFER JILKS

Deer hunting season begins

Clever signage

There are tricks to figuring out if it is open season in your Ontario area. Not being a hunter, I simply wanted to know if our neighbour's buddies were on the warpath. He has 35 acres, and allows someone to hunt on his land, adjacent to ours. After a couple of calls to the OPP, we have determined that he lets them have a blind, and leave a canoe to get onto the Tay River. Unfortunately, neither of us know the edges of our properties. I have heard them duck hunting at 5:00 a.m. during that season. It was scary. Someone was there prior to deer season last year. It sounded terribly close.

The process?
Firstly, one visits the WMU maps to find your Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) on the map, e.g., WMU 67 (PDF).

Whitetail bound

Then you go to the Hunting Regulations Summary page [e.g., Deer (PDF)], to find the individual animal that they are hunting. Finally, I found that in our area, eastern Ontario, deer season is Nov. 7 - 20.

Eastern Ontario established a Deer Advisory Committee (EODAC), according to outdoors guy. The reason being that MNR data shows that deer densities in Eastern Ontario is at an average of 2.5 deer/KM2 in 2009 following two killing winters.

When deer populations were at their peak in eastern Ontario, deer densities got as high as 12 to 14 deer/km² in suitable habitat. The 2009 data shows that deer densities have declined to an average of 2.5 deer/km² in the WMU’s in eastern Ontario. The target population is from 5 to 8 deer/km². This target comes from the province’s Cervid Ecological Framework [PDF], a provincial policy document that guides the wildlife management in Ontario.

Jeff Morrison, of Outdoors Guy, told me that based on his experience, Eastern Ontario has seen a 25- 50% decrease in deer population over the past 3 - 4 years.

When driving keep your eyes moving and ensure you check the roadway ahead and ditches on either side as you travel. Remember to slow down, you can only see what your headlights illuminate and if you see a deer near the roadway there is probably another one nearby.
Be prepared to act because domestic and wild animals may be dazzled by headlights and freeze on either the road or ditch as your vehicle approaches, then suddenly bolt in an unexpected direction.
Motorists who collide with a wild animal must report the collision to the police if the damage is in excess of $1000. Anyone wishing to keep the animal that has been killed as a result of a collision must contact their local Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) office to obtain a Certificate of Reporting.

 Cervid

Spring formation of antlers on buck
-note his wound

-a term used to describe members of the cervidae family; a ruminant, the male having antlers.  The doe cares for the fawns alone. Male and female are segregated into gender-based groups. The antlers are shed in January or February in this part of S.E. Ontario.

Ontario has four wild cervid species: moose, white-tailed deer, woodland caribou and American elk.  Cervids are a highly valued and unique species group of Ontario's wildlife heritage.  They are considered by many as symbols of wilderness and are an important component of Ontario’s biodiversity. I posted previously about a memorial: a moose collision that took the life of an OPP member.

They are also very dangerous on our roads, if drivers do not drive proactively. Even deer weigh in at 100 - 300 lbs., never mind moose, and cause a great amount of damage to person and property.

Algonquin moose -from my photoshoot

Read my guest post: one victim had 50 - 75 pieces of glass shards taken from her face in the ER after a deer collision.

Watch the ditches, they often leap at intervals from the ditch.
Use your high beams at night; slow down. Expect the unexpected.

Elk tracks from our Algonquin Park trip
-just HUGE!

It could be bear, or wild turkey, too.

My Gravenhurst bear sighting

Yo, woman. What you want?

Turkeys are HUGE, too.