05/15/2017

The Pennsylvania Game Commission tested 5,707 deer and 110 elk for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) during 2016.

 

Twenty-five wild deer tested positive for CWD. All of the wild CWD-positive deer were in or near Disease Management Area 2 (DMA 2), the only area of the state where CWD has been detected in the wild. These 25 deer more than doubled the number of CWD-positive deer detected in DMA 2 from 2012 to 2015.

 

Through 2016, 47 wild deer have tested positive for CWD in DMA 2.

 

Each year, the Game Commission collects CWD samples from hunter-harvested animals, road-kills, escaped captive cervids, and any cervid showing signs of CWD.

 

Since 2002, the Game Commission has tested over 61,000 deer for CWD. Although samples are collected from across the state, efforts were increased within the three Disease Management Areas (DMAs), which are areas in the state where CWD has been identified in wild and/or captive deer. These include: DMA 1 in parts of Adams and York counties in which CWD was identified on a captive deer farm in 2012; DMA 2 in parts of Bedford, Blair, Somerset, Fulton, Cambria, and Huntingdon counties where CWD has been identified in multiple wild deer since 2012 and recently on three captive deer facilities; and DMA 3 in Jefferson and Clearfield counties where CWD was detected on two captive deer facilities in 2014.

 

The 25 new CWD-positive wild deer were part of 1,652 deer samples collected within DMA 2 during 2016. CWD-positive deer included 13 road-killed deer, 10 hunter-harvested deer, and two deer showing signs consistent with CWD. Read the full CWD update.

Courtesy of PA Game Commission

Excitement is starting to build for the start of spring-gobbler seasons.

Properly licensed junior hunters and mentored youth can head afield Saturday, April 22 to participate in Pennsylvania’s annual youth spring turkey hunt. A week later, on April 29, all hunters can head into Penn’s Woods in pursuit of spring gobblers.

There’s good reason for the increasing interest among hunters, said Mary Jo Casalena, the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s wild turkey biologist.

A light turkey harvest last fall and a mild winter have set the stage for what could be a fast-starting spring gobbler season.

“Fall mast last year was spotty and turkeys responded by moving to those food sources, which in some cases meant they moved away from areas frequented by hunters,” Casalena said. “The fall turkey harvest dropped as a consequence. And while that might have been bad news for fall turkey hunters, it’s likely good news for spring turkey hunters because unfilled fall turkey tags typically lead to increased availability in the spring.

“Add to that the fact that mild winters, like the one we’re coming off, are easier on turkeys and help prepare them for spring breeding,” Casalena said. “That should lead to a healthier turkey population and might put gobblers on a timeline to be exceptionally fired up when the season begins.”

“So hunters who want to ensure their best opportunity to hunt as many days of the season as they can need to buy the license soon,” Casalena said. “There’s promise for a great season.”

Youth Hunt

All participants in the youth hunt must be accompanied by adults as required by law. A complete list of regulations applying to mentored youth and junior hunters can be found in the Pennsylvania Hunting & Trapping Digest, which is issued at the time hunting licenses are purchased and is also available online at www.pgc.pa.gov.

Hunting Hours

Hunting hours during the youth hunt end at noon. Junior hunters and mentored youth may also participate in the statewide spring gobbler season. Hunting hours begin one-half hour before sunrise and end at noon for the first two weeks of the statewide season (April 29 through May 13). Hunters are asked to be out of the woods by 1 p.m. when hunting hours end at noon. This is to minimize disturbance of nesting hens. From May 15 through May 31, hunting hours are from one-half hour before sunrise until one-half hour after sunset. The all-day season allows more opportunity at the point in the season when hunting pressure is lower and nesting hens are less likely to abandon nests.

Licensing and other regulations

During the spring gobbler season, hunters may use manually operated or semi-automatic shotguns limited to a three-shell capacity in the chamber and magazine combined. Muzzleloading shotguns, crossbows and long, recurve and compound bows also are permitted. For a complete list of regulations, consult Page 42 of the Pennsylvania Hunting & Trapping Digest.

Reporting harvests

Successful turkey hunters must immediately and properly tag the bird before moving the bird from the harvest site, and are required by law to report the harvest to the Game Commission. For most hunters, harvests must be reported within 10 days. Mentored youth hunters must report harvests within five days. Reporting harvests enables the Game Commission to more accurately estimate harvest and population totals, and is important to effective management.

There are three ways harvests can be reported. Hunters can visit wwwpgc.pa.gov., click the blue “Report a Harvest” button along the right side of the home page, then fill out a form and submit. Alternately, hunters can fill out and mail in the tear-out harvest report cards that are inserted into the Pennsylvania Hunting & Trapping Digest, or report the harvest by phone at 1-855-PAHUNT1 (1-855-724-8681). In all cases, it is helpful to have your license with you, as well as the tag you used in the field after harvesting the bird.

“Even though the Game Commission is not currently conducting any large-scale turkey research, there are still leg-banded turkeys remaining throughout the state from recently completed projects,” Casalena said. “If you are lucky enough to harvest a leg-banded turkey please call the toll-free number on the band and we will provide details of when and where the bird was tagged.”

Harvest photo contest

A beautiful gobbler might not be the only prize a successful turkey hunter brings home this spring. The Pennsylvania Game Commission is sponsoring its inaugural Turkey Harvest Photo Contest, and hunters submitting the photos of themselves with their 2017 Pennsylvania gobblers are eligible to win one of two personalized, engraved box calls.

Entries will be narrowed to a field of finalists in each the adult hunter and youth hunter category, with one winner in each category then selected by voters on the Game Commission’s Facebook page. But you have to enter to win. Hunters should be sure to submit photos of their 2017 Pennsylvania harvests by email to pgccontest@pa.gov. Submissions should include the first and last name of anyone in the photo, the hunter’s hometown and the county the turkey was harvested. The contest will run from youth season April 22 through Monday, June 5, with the winners selected shortly thereafter.

Courtesy PA Game News Release #119-17