MARQUETTE, MI-- Ten days into the firearm deer season, Department of Natural Resources deer check stations in the U.P. are seeing an average 12 percent increase in numbers over last year.
Preliminary results as of the end of the day Saturday also indicate a 2 percent increase over the ten-year average.
Officials say about 90 percent of the deer checked have been bucks. About 85 percent of those are 2.5 years or older.
So far this season 449 deer have been checked at the Escanaba DNR station—up 20 percent over the same time last year. Only 13 deer have come through the Sault Ste. Marie station. That’s down 35 percent from 2018, but a decrease of 51 percent compared to the ten-year average.
The DNR says hunters have been submitting deer head samples for chronic wasting disease testing, particularly in and around the Core CWD Surveillance Area (portions of Dickinson, Menominee and Delta counties), but more samples from the core area will be needed to meet testing goals there.
