It's that time of year for motorists to watch out for deer

By Ed Godfrey Comments 0
Published: October 25, 2009

My colleague, fellow sports columnist Jenni Carlson, bagged her first deer this month. She didn’t use a bow, but her Honda Pilot.

Oklahoma’s deer muzzleloader season is now under way. The chance of deer-vehicle accidents increases over the next two months as whitetail deer enter the breeding season. In Oklahoma, the peak of the whitetail deer rut, or breeding season, normally occurs the week before deer gun season, but it can vary across the state. Photo by Nels Rodefeld

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The accident happened on I-35 north near the Arbuckles. The passenger side of Jenni’s car now resembles moon craters.

Just a few days later, my niece, Sonia, had a fat doe bounce off the front fender of her 2009 Pontiac Vibe. The doe jumped out in front of her on SH 9 in Haskell County.

It was my niece’s first new car. She had it only four months. I think she is mad enough to buy a hunting license.

Drivers beware. There will be more deer-vehicle collisions over the next two months.

Hunters are reporting a lot of deer movement in recent days as does are beginning their first estrus cycle.

Whitetail does cycle every 28 days until they are bred. When the breeding season begins, whitetails throw caution into the wind as bucks begin chasing does and pay little attention to highways and motorists.

Drivers should be very wary at daylight and dusk or risk — like Jenni and Sonia — being among the 9,000-plus estimated deer-vehicle collisions that happen in Oklahoma every year.

State Farm Insurance — the leading auto insurer in the nation and Oklahoma — released some national statistics last month showing that deer-vehicle collisions among its customers have risen by 18 percent in the past five years. The number of vehicles on U.S. roadways had increased by just 7 percent during the same time.

In Oklahoma, the number of deer-vehicle accidents jumped by 34 percent in those five years, almost twice the national average. Oklahoma posted the seventh-largest increase in the country on State Farm’s list.

"I would believe that,” said Alan Peoples, head of the wildlife division for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. "We do know our population is increasing.”

Just how many deer are there in Oklahoma?

"We get that question a lot,” Peoples said. "How many ants are in your backyard? That’s a pretty hard number to get your head around.”

In recent years, state wildlife officials have always answered that question with an estimate of 500,000. But Peoples thinks Oklahoma’s deer population could be as high as 1 million.

Last season, Oklahoma hunters killed 111,427 deer (and that is just the deer that are legally checked in). It’s estimated that hunters will harvest as much as 10 percent of a deer population, Peoples said.

"So if we actually harvest one out of every 10 deer, that would leave you to believe we have a million deer in the state,” Peoples said. "I think 750,000 is still a pretty conservative estimate.”

With deer-vehicle collisions on the rise, perhaps it’s time for an even longer gun season in Oklahoma.

Biologists could justify it because of the growing deer population, but many landowners — who worry about such things like trespassing and cattle being shot — likely would oppose it, Peoples said.

"I don’t know if we would ever get there,” Peoples said. "It was such a difficult task to go from a nine-day (gun) season to a 16-day season.”

Peoples also points out that the state Wildlife Department has expanded deer hunting opportunities in recent years, adding youth seasons, holiday seasons and increasing the bag limit for does in western Oklahoma.

It’s been done not only to benefit sportsmen, but to try and curb the growing problems that farmers are having with deer eating their crops.

Landowners also may enroll in deer management programs that allow for antlerless hunting on private land for another week after the gun season has ended.

Even with liberal hunting seasons, the deer population in Oklahoma and in many states continues to increase. Hunters can’t kill enough deer to keep it in check.

"We will be hearing about more deer-vehicle collisions, no question about it,” Peoples said. "For the next month, they will continue to increase.”

Motorists are constantly advised never to swerve to miss a deer. Swerving to miss a deer could cause you to lose control of the vehicle or put you into oncoming traffic or a tree.

"I tell my daughter that if it weighs anything less than an Angus bull, take it out,” Peoples said. "Bad things happen when you go to the ditch.”