More bucks than does are harvested in South Carolina

It’s often said there is much more than a river that separates South Carolina and Georgia, especially where whitetail deer management is concerned.
Georgia’s antler restrictions and two-buck limit have helped put the Peach State on an upward track in terms of quality bucks and hunter satisfaction, while South Carolina – with no limits on bucks – continues to lose ground.
In September, South Carolina’s Board of Natural Resources took a long overdue step in recommending – after eight years of study and debate – a five-buck statewide limit and a three-buck limit on game zones 1 and 2.
“Most hunters perceive that the current system leads to overexploitation of bucks, particularly young bucks, resulting in a poor overall management approach,” the board said in its position statement. “Annual deer harvest figures support hunters’ allegations that some hunters take unfair advantage of the lack of bag limits.”
South Carolina’s deer population has been falling for some time. Palmetto State hunters killed an estimated 222,649 whitetails in 2010 – reflecting a 4 percent decrease from 2009. Since 2002, the state’s whitetail herd has declined by 30 percent.
The 2010 harvest data also indicates South Carolina hunters continue to harvest more bucks than does. Those hunters also kill most of the small bucks before they are allowed to grow into large ones,

according to data compiled by the Quality Deer Management Association.
As a percentage, those vulnerable 18-month-old bucks accounted for a whopping 65 percent of South Carolina’s total antlered buck harvest, representing an increase from the 59 percent the previous year, the QDMA annual report said. Conversely, Georgia’s most recent figure was 37 percent, down from 45 percent the previous year.
Georgia’s two-buck limit has helped improve its deer program in recent years. The percentage of mature (3 or more years old) bucks in the total harvest has continued to increase – from 23 percent in 2008 to 34 percent last year.
South Carolina’s already low percentage, however, continues to fall – from 18 percent to 15 percent, according to the QDMA summary.
According to a S.C. DNR news release last week, surveys show at least 70 percent of the state’s hunters support the concept of a reasonable limit on antlered bucks and a tagging program that would provide for enforcement of such a limit. Additionally, 70 percent of hunters would pay a fee to implement such a tagging program, as long as fees are used to administer the program and conduct deer research and management.
Efforts to reign in overhunting can improve management programs but won’t solve all whitetail problems.
One of the South’s biggest factors in deer management is the rapid spread of the coyote and the growing body of evidence that they kill more deer than previously thought.
Current research being conducted at the Savannah River Site by the U.S. Forest Service and DNR indicates that coyotes are significantly impacting the survival of deer fawns. The study, now in its fourth year, indicates that annual fawn mortality through all causes is about 70 percent, which is much higher than expected, and

that coyotes are responsible for approximately 80 percent of these mortalities.
If these findings even moderately represent a statewide situation, this “new mortality factor” combined with extremely liberal deer harvests and lower deer populations are a cause for concern. It should be noted that based on the experience in other states, it is highly unlikely that coyotes can be significantly reduced, and certainly not eliminated.

By Rob Pavey