BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - North Dakota’s Game and Fish Department is making 49,000 deer licenses available for the fall hunting season, a 13 percent rise from last year and a reflection of the state’s slowly rebounding deer population.
Deer numbers in the state have been hurt in recent years by a decline in grassland habitat, the booming oil industry in the west and several harsh winters. The number of licenses issued last year was the lowest in 40 years and a drop of about 71 percent from the 2008 record of just under 150,000 licenses.
However, the deer population has benefited from seven years of reduced licenses and some recent mild winters, state Wildlife Chief Jeb Williams said Tuesday.
“Consequently, a small increase in deer licenses will provide increased hunting opportunities while continuing to encourage population growth,” he said. “Most of the additional licenses are for antlered deer.”
The percentage of hunters who successfully killed a deer in North Dakota last fall was the highest in five years, indicating more deer in the countryside. Game and Fish data released last month showed that 68 percent of deer hunters bagged an animal, up from 60 percent in 2014 and a significant rise from the all-time low of 51 percent in 2011.
A survey this spring also concluded that the mule deer population in the western Badlands has increased for a fourth straight year.
Hunting of mule deer does has been banned in each of the last four seasons to help the population recover following a string of harsh winters in the late-2000s. Limited mule deer doe hunting will be allowed in five western hunting units this year, though it will remain closed in three other units.
“Mule deer numbers are above the population objective and long-term average in certain areas,” Williams said. “Therefore a limited number of antlerless mule deer licenses are available in these units.”
The deer gun season opens at noon Nov. 4 and continues through Nov. 20. Online applications for licenses will be available beginning Wednesday through the Game and Fish website, www.gf.nd.gov . Paper applications will be at vendors throughout the state by mid-May. The deadline to apply for a license is June 1.
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