BANGOR — State deer biologist Kyle Ravana believes Maine will experience an above-average deer kill by the time winter finally ends.
He said Monday in Bangor that he doesn’t do a final estimate until about the end of April. But right now, his preliminary estimate is a 12 percent mortality rate. The average is 10 percent.
“That may not seem like much but when you get into the hundred thousands, it is,” Ravana said.
Going into the firearms season for deer last fall, Maine’s deer population was approximately 203,000, according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Hunters were expected to harvest an estimated 25,750.
Even though temperatures and snowfall have been brutal this winter, Ravana said it’s not as severe as the winters of 2008 and 2009.
The deer population has been rebounding since then due to warmer winters.
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