Idaho hunters shattered the previous record of 29,800 harvested deer with 2015’s harvest numbers. Hunters in the state took 30,568 whitetail deer in 2015, which Clearwater Regional wildlife biologist Dave Koehler said surprised him, considering Idaho had experienced warmer than usual temperatures in the fall season.
There were a total of 151,799 deer hunters in Idaho in 2015, indicating an impressive 45 percent success rate among deer hunters last season.
In tandem with record-breaking harvest reports, the number of hunters in the state was on the rise in 2015 as well. The sale of deer and elk tags increased 6 percent in 2015 and the state watched their 14,000 non-resident deer tags sell out for the first time since 2008.
Elk harvests were impressive as well, amounting to 24,543, exceeding the previous year`s harvest by nearly 4,000 animals.
Things are looking much of the same for the upcoming 2016 season as preliminary data from radio-collared deer in the state is indicating that 86 percent of fawns had survived through the month of February. State biologists will continue to monitor their survival through the spring as March is often among the worst months for mortality.
