November 30 – Despite being hunted every fall, deer find ways to survive.
State hunting officials say the months of dry weather are unlikely to impact hunting.
But processor Melinda Weimer has noticed a difference in the size and quality of the antlers and the amount of quality meat Weimer Meats in Loyalhanna has been able to return to archery hunters.
“They’re just not really producing meat like they would have in the past,” she said, blaming the dry weather and what she said would be the potential food impacts.
Joseph King agreed. The pair of deer he treats to apples at his home on Pittsburgh’s South Side Slopes appear to be on the thin side.
“They’re just not getting what they need,” said King, a board member of the Allegheny County Sportsmen’s League. “It makes sense.”
Some of the more than half a million hunters expected to take to Pennsylvania’s forests Saturday for the first day of gun season will lug their weapons through areas under drought watch.
Harvest numbers during the archery season were normal, indicating white-tailed deer were able to find water and food despite the local drought, said Jake Wiedner, game warden with the Southwest Region Office.
“They are very adaptable,” he says. “We don’t see any impact from dry weather.”
After the driest summer since 2002, precipitation was still sparse in the Pittsburgh region as early fall began, National Weather Service meteorologist Jason Frazier said. Since September 1, 6.41 centimeters of precipitation has fallen.
“This falls about 2.5 inches below normal for the fall season,” he said.
A drought warning for much of the region, including Allegheny, Indiana, Fayette, Westmoreland and Somerset counties, was issued Nov. 1 by the state Department of Environmental Protection. If a province were to be identified as part of an audit, it would have deviated from the normal situation. range of streamflow, groundwater level, precipitation, and soil moisture for three or more months.
John Pipak, vice president of the Sportsmen’s Association of Greensburg, said the group’s members typically had success during archery season and he didn’t hear about the deer being smaller than normal. But dry weather can pose a problem for hunters.
“It’s hard to sneak through the woods when it’s really dry,” he said.
It’s likely that the streams and creeks where deer frequent have not dried up completely, Wiedner said. Water levels were quite low in those springs, Frazier agreed, but they appear to be returning to normal as precipitation has increased as fall progresses.
If the food the herbivorous creatures usually forage isn’t available, they will simply find something else, Wiedner said. In the fall, deer forage in fields and during the winter months they search for trees that produce nuts, such as acorns and beechnuts. According to Field & Stream, they also eat leaves, shrubs, crops, berries, grass and apples, among other things.
“They just learn to adapt,” said state wildlife officer Andy Harvey, information and education supervisor. “They just learn to find another viable food source.”
Weimer said she noticed that young animals in particular didn’t have as much fat on their bodies when they were harvested and processed at the shop she owns with her husband.
“I really think it affects the season this year,” she said. “If they don’t have enough to eat… they will lose weight.”
Deer typically grow the most in the summer and may not have gotten the right amount of nutrients this year, King said. But hunters don’t have to worry, the deer are still there.
“Yes, they are getting smaller, but not that much smaller,” he said.
Game commission officials expect similar deer harvest numbers this year to 2023, when hunters took 254,710 deer during the firearms season — 86,260 with antlers and 168,450 without. In all 2023-2024 deer hunting seasons, 430,010 white-tailed deer were taken statewide.
In the four Wildlife Management Units that make up most of the Pittsburgh region, nearly 40,000 antlered deer and 71,000 antlerless deer were taken during all of the 2023-2024 seasons, according to the wildlife commission.
Deer firearms season runs from Saturday through December 14th, with the exception of December 8th. Frazier said opening weekend will be cold, with temperatures struggling to reach the 30s. It will be chilly and windy, with gusts up to 20 miles per hour and wind chills in the teens.
Renatta Signorini is a TribLive reporter covering breaking news, crime, courts and Jeannette. She has worked at the Trib since 2005. She can be reached at rsignorini@triblive.com.
