Weather continues to have an impact on one of Central Kansas’ major hobbies: hunting. Opening day of pheasant season on Nov. 9 coincided with nearly two inches of rain in the Golden Belt. Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Manager Jason Wagner said that was enough to keep many hunters off of dirt roads and out of fields. As rifle season begins for deer on Dec. 4, dry conditions may also be playing a role with fewer deer in the area.
“Out at the Bottoms I’ve seen it, the numbers just aren’t there,” Wagner said. “They’ve crashed. They’ve dropped off pretty significantly, especially over the last two years.”
Wagner said viral disease epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD), and chronic wasting disease (CWD), also known as zombie deer disease, may be factors in the decline. CWD has been reported in more than half of Kansas counties, including most counties in the western two-thirds of the state.
“Lack of habitat is probably hurting some of the deer numbers, too,” Wagner said. “You don’t think about that so much, but the drought we’ve had the last couple of years, with a lot of the CRP being hayed and grazed or just expiring and put back into production, there’s less deer habitat out there.”
Hunting allotments can also impact deer populations. The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks takes several factors into consideration each year when determining allotments, including deer-vehicle accident reports, surveys from land owners and hunters, and crop damage reports.
As reported in the Great Bend Post
