Biologists emphasized that declines in the deer harvest in 2014 were concentrated in five counties north of Raleigh, but they actually dropped in 94 of North Carolina’s 100 counties.
Whether epizootic hemorrhagic disease and a heavy acorn crop — or a combination of the two — caused the drops is unknown, except it’s almost certain the virus plus available natural foods caused declines at Chatham, Durham, Franklin, Vance, Warren and Wake counties. Adjacent counties with lower harvests likely had a similar but less drastic combination of those factors.
Vance County was hit hardest. After a harvest of 2,592 deer in 2013, hunters took only 886 deer there last season, a 192-percent drop. Franklin County had a 121-percent drop, 3,554 deer to 1,608; Nash County was down 104 percent, 2,562 to 1,257; Warren County’s harvest fell 85 percent, 3010 to 1624; while Wake’s drop from 3,279 to 1,877 was a 75-percent decline. Durham County fell from 1,140 to 705 deer, a 61-percent tumble. Person fell from 2,854 deer to 1,858, a 54-percent drop. Orange County’s dip, 2,480 to 1,615 was a 53-percent decline.
Only six of 100 counties saw a harvest increase in 2014, and four were mountain counties with small deer herds: Transylvania, Graham, Jackson and Haywood. Only Craven County and Union County showed increases, and they were 4.1 and 3.7 percent, respectively.
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