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Which Deer Did You See
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<blockquote data-quote="BSK" data-source="post: 3937835" data-attributes="member: 17"><p>Mike,</p><p></p><p>I know it's not what you want to hear, but I tend to be very leery of hunter observation data. Far too often I've found it to be fairly meaningless when compared to more robust data sets such as trail-camera data. Hunters only "observe" during daylight hours; hunters are observing animals that do not want to be seen (and see hunters as their greatest threat--which is true); and hunters only observe for a limited number of hours during a limited number of months per year. Trail-cameras run 24 hours per day, and often their is nothing beyond an inert box strapped to a tree to warn deer away from being photographed.</p><p></p><p>Even when using statistical "smoothing" techniques that factor in the limited number of hours hunters observe per year, true trends in population data from hunter observations often display <em>completely opposite</em> data than what is actually occurring. For instance, hunter observed adult sex ratios may be trending in one direction while the actual sex ratio is trending in the other. Or hunter observation rates (deer seen per hunting hour) decline while actual deer population increases. I see this type of thing ALL THE TIME.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Over a very wide area (an entire region), declining harvests per hunting hour (results per effort) could indicate a declining deer population. It could also indicate <em>changing hunter attitudes/desires</em>.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="BSK, post: 3937835, member: 17"] Mike, I know it's not what you want to hear, but I tend to be very leery of hunter observation data. Far too often I've found it to be fairly meaningless when compared to more robust data sets such as trail-camera data. Hunters only "observe" during daylight hours; hunters are observing animals that do not want to be seen (and see hunters as their greatest threat--which is true); and hunters only observe for a limited number of hours during a limited number of months per year. Trail-cameras run 24 hours per day, and often their is nothing beyond an inert box strapped to a tree to warn deer away from being photographed. Even when using statistical "smoothing" techniques that factor in the limited number of hours hunters observe per year, true trends in population data from hunter observations often display [i]completely opposite[/i] data than what is actually occurring. For instance, hunter observed adult sex ratios may be trending in one direction while the actual sex ratio is trending in the other. Or hunter observation rates (deer seen per hunting hour) decline while actual deer population increases. I see this type of thing ALL THE TIME. Over a very wide area (an entire region), declining harvests per hunting hour (results per effort) could indicate a declining deer population. It could also indicate [i]changing hunter attitudes/desires[/i]. [/QUOTE]
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