I thought at first one reason is that not as many hunters have been going out. I’ll have to check if I can find the numbers for reported tags
Article from early 2020 indicates numbers of deer taken have been dropping for a decade: https://www.dispatch.com/sports/20190921/outdoors—why-fewer-whitetail-deer-are-taken-each-year-in-ohio
19-20 season was 172k
20-21 season was 197k
https://www.cleveland.com/news/2021/02/ohio-deer-hunting-season-concludes-with-most-deer-killed-since-2012.html
so actually more were taken this past year
The bird thing in DC is odd for sure.
The deer thing I’ve seen before across the midwest - populations ebb and flow and I think we’re at one of the peaks. Still odd that it jumped so much over the past year so it could be any number of things.
Thank you for all that info. I haven’t been out much lately (par for the course) but DH goes to town regularly and I’ll ask him if he’s seen more deer carcasses than usual. Does are having their fawns right now. We’re quite rural but there is “big” road (called highway but mostly it’s two lane) through the valley and a lot of cars go (too) fast.
More deer because no hunting season last year and fewer cars to run into them.
PA regularly has more road deer kills than hunter kills. Deer numbers been off a bit too east of the Mississippi in recent past from blue tongue and some hard winters, might be strong recovery. There’s somewhere between 30 and 40 million back there.