North Carolina hunters grumbled last year about a poor whitetail deer population, and recent statistics released by the state Wildlife Resources Commission confirm what was a rumor.
The Commission reports a drop in the overall deer harvest of almost eight percent between the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons, with last year’s harvest 148,811 animals — 11.2 percent below the decade average.
The Commission’s statistics show harvest decline across all nine of the state’s wildlife districts, from 1.2 percent in the extreme western mountain to 14.1 percent in the northern Piedmont.
“We expect to see annual…
