VICtort wrote:Out west we constantly hear of the (over?) abundance of whitetails back east, why hasn't someone mentioned eating them, or did I overlook it?
Vic, I mentioned eating deer on the 1st page, 2nd post from the bottom. I think right now people are trying to go for the more unusual, and in these parts if you have eaten ANY wild game it is likely to be deer. But there is an incredible overabundance of deer in the east. A look at Ohio for example.
The carrying capacity of Ohio should be between 7-15 deer per square mile.
Most of Ohio is around 20-40, with some areas (including some of the parks I work at) as high as 200 deer per squaremile.
Our herd stands at about 750,000 for the whole state.
About 100,000 -+ hunters take the field each year for deer.
~250,000 deer are hunted in Ohio each year.
Every year the population grows.
There seem to be less and less people hunting, with a huge percent of the urban populations not understanding meat comes from an animal that was living somewhere, but there is still a lot of hunters out there (for deer at least) yet.
Andy
p.s. And to keep it on topic - Mule Deer I have eaten.