Road Kills vs. Harvests

P

Pahoo

New member
Guys,
I spent a good part of the day on the road, which is dangerous. I think about things that many times should be left alone. But, here is a question, 'How many deer are killed on Iowa roads annually, versus how many deer are harvested by hunters in Iowa, same time frame?' Also, how many human injuries are involved with car/deer crashes? We should already have a number on the deer fatalities. This is just something I thought of that could be handy knowledge to have.
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Forum,
Received this question from a friend of mine who in his time off from customer support, hunts and is a landowner. I know there are statistics out there but not sure where you find them or what agency, documents them. Even though this question specifically mentions Iowa, knowing about other states might lead us in the right direction. Any and all assist, would be appreciated. .. ;)

Be Safe !!!
 
The insurance industry keeps track of damage claims based on animal strikes. I have seen numbers of road-killed deer 5-10 times the annual deer harvest in some areas. It would be interesting to compare the numbers. I am sure the insurance industry would love to have large wildlife populations reduced in order to lower damage claims.
 
Maybe insurance companies should offer 10% discounts for customers who buy deer tags and a 20% to customers who tag a deer.
 
It's my understanding that here in PA these Deer/Human incidents are how the game commission determines allocations for antler-less and bonus antlered deer tags in a given WMU Wild Life management Unit. By this, allocations are not based on population. In theory if there is plenty of healthy supportive habitat less tags are issued and less deer will be taken, if not the number of tags go up. They use WMU's divided by major roadways and streams/rivers instead of by county. This makes easy boundaries for hunters.
 
I recall an article from some 50 or 60 years ago about Pennsylvania. Hunter kill and road kill were roughly equal, at around 40,000 deer per year.

Suggested reading for amusement with some stories about road kill: "Mama Makes Up Her Mind" by Bailey White. True stories about a rather kooky Southern Lady. Interesting what hard times will put on the table.
 
Utah:
(statistics pulled from an old post of mine)
Deer tags issued every year: 110,000 (average)
Deer killed by hunters: 22,000-33,000
Number of people in the mountains, all at the same time, chasing after those 22k-33k deer: more than 450,000
Deer killed by vehicles in 2006: 11,000 (estimated)**

Deer dying of old age every year, in the Salt Lake Valley or adjoining canyons, because there is no hunting, or the archery-only areas are incredibly hard to access: more than 3,400 (not counting vehicle kills, poisoning from people feeding them, predation, or anything else - that's just "natural causes")



**(In the year that this number was reported, the state estimated that they only knew of about 12% of the vehicle kills. When you apply that figure to the known kills, you get a result that says 91,000+ deer die to vehicles every year. ....That's really hard to believe, since Utah's herd usually hovers around 165k-195k animals. Somebody needs to check their math again. ;))
 
My first USAF mentor was a retired CMSgt who ran the trap/skeet range at Fairchild AFB. He once opined:

Son, ya know the ballistic coefficient of a Chevy bumper is far better than any modern firearm?

Southern NJ had the most road killed deer on the side of the road than anywhere else I've been stationed!
 
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I don't remember now if it were Maryland or New Jersey, but in a highly-Yuppified area there was a successful effort to end deer hunting. Within a couple of years there was an epiphany as to the mistake. Way too many BMWs and Volvos had "negative interactions" with Bambi. Insurance agents became pro-hunting, along with many of the Yuppie clan.
 
I don't remember the exact numbers, but several years ago the veh/deer encounters got so bad in the county (don't remember the name) but contains Wichita KS, the county attorney advertized the fact that he would REFUSE to prosicute any poaching charges in an effort to eliminate or cut down on the number of vehicle/deer accidents.

In Alaska its really bad this year, only moose instead of deer. Record heavy snows have forced the moose on to the highways and railroad right of ways.

Not just vehicle accidents but moose predestrian encounters.

I would be willing to bet that more moose are killed (or shot after) being hit by vehicles in the Anchorage/Mat Su area then killed by hunters in the whole state.

I know when I was a cop in Anchorage I had to shoot a heck of a lot of them in my 20 years with the Anchorage Police Department. Also spent a lot of time pulling guard duty at school bus stops because of moose in the area.

18 years ago (as of two days ago) I retired and moved back to Wyoming. There is no way to keep track of the number of deer killed on our highways. I would bet most are not even reported.

Hard to compair numbers, we sell heck of a lot of deer tags, We have more deer then people in this state.
 
So far, the count has been 2. One to a Chevy and one to a Ford. Sure ticks me off that you cant keep them. Afterall, you pay for it at the repair shop.
 
Sure ticks me off that you cant keep them.
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Must be a state-to-state thing.

Here in Ohio you can keep them if you wish. Far as that goes, many LE agency's here in Ohio have lists of people they will call that have made arrangements saying they will come pick up deer killed in accidents if the vehicle owner doesn't want the deer.


LEO just writes you a form to make it legal. Saves the taxpayers $'s from having to have a gov't employee deal with the carcass.
 
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Is that right ??

Sure ticks me off that you cant keep them. Afterall, you pay for it at the repair shop.
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Is that right? This really surprises me, especially you being from Alabama. In Iowa, we pretty much go as shortwave, has listed for Ohio. I fact, I'll bet most Midwest go this way as well .... ;)
in most cases, they are only good for summer sausage .... :mad:

Be Safe !!!
 
There is no real way to tell. In the winter when the leaves are down you see deer being picked over by crows. The deer were hit and made it off the road pretty far. I have never hit one, but have had 2 hit me. They ran into the side of my truck, bounced off, got up and took off. No real way to tell how many were killed or made it in my opinion. In Pa. nobody but the Insurance companies care. A couple years back a road crew paved over half a deer laying on the road and some reporter saw it and it hit the papers. That started some crap. Investigations, firings, all kinds of stuff. You can pick them up legally if you report it. The Game Commission keeps a record so you can't pass a poached deer off as a roadkill. Other than that, I don't think they care either.
 
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