Newspaper Clipping - Newspaper Clipping Scan - Special Deerhunt - 12/9/1985
Special hunt
did not
lower
population
by Amy O'Marro
There are too mar y deer in
Eagan, despite att ampts to
lower the populat on in a
November special hu it in Min-
nesota River Valley.
The special bow a nd arrow
hunt in the Mi in-s( ra Valley
Wildlife Refuge and ]'art Snell-
ing State Park was cor ducted by
the Minnesota Depai tment of
Natural Resources (DNR).
Hunters took 52 deer his year.
Last year hunters t egged 60
deer.
After the hunt, DM t officers
counted 184 deer along the river.
We add 25 percent tc what we
count for the deer we d )n't see,"
said Gary Thell, DNR :onserva-
tion officer. "Of that number,
there are probably 25 does.
When those does ha ve their
fawns you can mult ply that
number by two.
"The bow and arrow hunter is
looking for the trophy Jeer. He
has all year to hunt. Th,, shotgun
hunter is not given all y ar. He is
narrowed down and , vill take
some deer. Our big a ncern is
deer-car accidents, anc that the
area won't provide eno .igh food
for that many deer," Tl tell said.
The number of veh cle-deer
accidents has not ;reatly
decreased from last yEar, said
Capt. Pat Geagan.
There were 74 vehicle deer ac-
cidents in 1984 and 64 a ccidents
through October of 198 i. Areas
where most accidents v ith deer
occur were mainly along
Highway 13, Geagan : aid. He
targeted Highway 13 ai d Shan-
nee Road, Lexington Avenue
and Yankee Doodle R( ad, Dif-
fley and Pilot Knob raids and
the area around Interst, to 494.
"We have to get t) to deer ,
reproduction cycle d )wn to
where we can manage t ie herd. lC
Deer reproduce every tvt o to two
and half years. When tl ere are
too many deer the y eat
themselves out of food ai d die of t
starvation or are attac ked by
other animals,." Geagar said.
Deer are not alway killed
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