A RECORD SEASON FOR DEER AND BEAR, BUT TURKEYS FLOP

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 19, 1992                   TAG: 9201200238
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: D13   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                 LENGTH: Medium
A RECORD SEASON FOR DEER AND BEAR, BUT TURKEYS FLOP
Hunters got just what the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries had promised during the 1991-92 big game season: A record deer kill.
Along with that came an unexpected bonus. The bear kill of 644 also was a record, more than twice the count of the previous season.
Turkey hunting success fell by more than 30 percent, a figure that should hold little surprise for the hunters who pursued this elusive bird. Populations were low and the turkeys that were available often were scattered by an abundance of food, said Bob Duncan, chief of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries wildlife division.
The official deer kill count is about two weeks from being completed, but a sampling of big game stations revealed it will be approximately 180,000, Duncan said.
While that represents a 12 percent increase over the previous year, also a record, it is not what game officials had targeted for herd control, said Duncan.
"We were hoping to reach 200,000," he said.
Wildlife experts had established the most liberal deer hunting regulations in the 75-year history of the game department in an effort to trim a deer herd they said had swelled to 850,000 animals.
The bulk of the increase in the kill came from west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where there was a 20 percent jump. In the east, hunters using hounds often were hampered by warm, dry weather, and that resulted in a kill increase of only about 1.5 percent, Duncan said.
"The really good days for the dog runners didn't come that often during the season," he said.
"I am not disappointed with the kill," he added. "That still is 20,000 more deer. That is a lot of whitetails. My concern, we may have hit them a little hard on public lands and we may not have done a good enough job on some private lands."
The abundant mast crop this season - just the opposite of last - meant that bears didn't den up early and were more likely to be confronted by hunters, Duncan said. That explains why the kill leaped from 314 in 1990 to 644 in 1991.
"We didn't have any fewer bears last year. It was just they weren't as available," he said. "So we have gone back to a record-setting kill that is just slightly above what it was two years ago."
The fall turkey kill is expected to total 11,265, a 33 percent decline from a year ago.
"I wouldn't want people to get all upset over the fact that the turkey kill is off," said Duncan. "Keep in mind, it is a ground-nesting bird and has its ups and downs. A good year can bring them right back."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB