A Successful Season for Hunters in 2009

Last year, Nova Scotia's woods and wetlands hosted over 40,000 licensed hunters who helped the province manage wildlife populations.

"Those who don't hunt may not realize the important role hunters play in keeping our wildlife numbers in check," said Natural Resources Minister John MacDonell. "Hunting helps manage some wildlife species before populations become problematic."

Hunters took 7,199 bucks and 3,081 antlerless deer during the fall 2009 hunt, for a total of 10,280 deer harvested. That is down from 12,568, in 2008 but up from 10,075 in 2007. Lunenburg County reported the highest number of deer harvested, at 3,104, followed by Colchester County at 963.

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 eight deer-management zones in 2009.

By offering special opportunities to hunters in Zone 2A (Lunenburg/Bridgewater area), the department estimates that the historically high deer density in this location may finally be declining where high numbers of deer have become a serious problem.

The department conducts an annual spring review to determine how the winter impacted the herd. Based on this review, later this spring, the department will announce how many antlerless deer hunting stamps will be available for the 2010 deer hunting season.

Harvest statistics for the 2009 moose and bear seasons have also been released.

Last fall, an estimated total of 1,101 bears were harvested by 3,250 hunters – the highest numbers recorded since a separate bear licence was introduced in 1988.

Also in 2009, 346 moose hunting licences were offered within the four moose-management zones in Cape Breton and overall, hunters took 279 moose for a 80.6 per cent success rate.

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