With Wisconsin’s nine-day gun deer opener approaching, the Wisconsin DNR is encouraging hunters to help track wildlife populations by recording observations through the Deer Hunter Wildlife Survey. 

This easy-to-do survey lets hunters record deer and other wildlife sightings during or after time out in the field, either online or through U.S. mail.
“This is a great opportunity for hunters to inform wildlife biologists what they are seeing,” Brian Dhuey, survey manager for the Department of Natural Resources, said. “With the help from hunters, we can better track population changes and improve our management decisions, especially for animals that are difficult to monitor such as bobcat.”

Dhuey says in the first two months of the survey, deer hunters submitted more than 1,400 reports. Hunters logged a total of 2,843 trips, where they observed more than 1,200 bucks, 2,600 does and 1,700 fawns. The frequency of deer sighted, or deer per hour, varies widely by region with the high located in the Western Farmland (0.79 deer per hour) and the low in the Northern Forest (0.33 deer per hour). Turkeys, raccoons and ruffed grouse are the next most commonly observed animals.

Links to the survey can be found on the DNR website.