Minnesota’s Firearms Deer Harvest Down About 9 Percent

(KDLM) – The preliminary numbers for Minnesota’s firearms deer hunting season are down slightly this year.
“For our firearms A season which just ended this Sunday we estimated that we harvested 119, 715 deer,” says Barb Keller of the Minnesota DNR. “And that’s a little bit lower than in the past. It’s 9% lower than last year and relative to our five-year mean of deer harvest it’s 17 percent less.”

Keller says a severe winter, fewer deer in northern Minnesota, and rainy weather on opening weekend contributed to the decline.

“When we have a severe winter wolf predation can increase so that interacts with the severe winters,” says Keller. “Winter habitat availability can also be an issue. So those three factors kind of contribute to that decline we’ve been seeing in northern Minnesota.”