Should doe hunting be legal?

Yes

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by Rebecca Brown

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Hunting is an important part of wildlife management. Throughout the world a huge percentage of natural wildlife habitat has been destroyed by human development, predators are removed through human means and migratory paths are blocked by still more human constructions. Therefore, humans must step in the gap and fill the predatory niche to prevent wildlife from becoming so populated that they starve themselves out of their meager habitat or become hazards on roadways.

In the US, Game & Fish officials assess the number of game animals of each species an area can support and then issue hunting licenses to get rid of the surplus. The question on the table today is, should does be included in this tally of "surplus" animals?

Imagine this scenario: a small habitat has an estimated capacity of 100 deer. There are currently 120 deer including 60 bucks and 60 does. Now lets assume that 20 bucks are harvested, leaving 40 bucks and 60 does in the area, then lets further assume that every single one of those does drops a fawn in the spring and they're all 50/50 does and bucks. In the next hunting season we have 70 bucks and 90 does, leaving 60 that must be harvested. By the season after that, assuming the same conditions, there would be 280 deer and only 100 of them bucks, making it impossible to control by harvesting bucks alone.

Now think of how this scenario would have gone if tags were issued equally between the bucks and does. The population would have stayed under control, the animals wouldn't have been overcrowded through most of the year and there would be a pretty well-sustained small population in our fictional habitat.

Obviously this example consists of much tidier numbers than will ever occur in nature, but the principal remains the same...in order to have effective population control, members of both sexes must be included in the harvest. Hunting seasons are scheduled long after fawning so all young will be old enough to fend for themselves and no one has to worry about orphaning fawns. If all does are ignored in the hunting season there will soon be a large population of does too old to reproduce as well as a huge number of healthy, producing does who only need a single buck amongst them to explode their population, but who also stand a much higher chance of wandering into roadways and being struck by motorized vehicles.

In short, not only do I believe that the harvesting of does should be legal, I believe all Fish & Game officials have a responsibility to accurately assess the number of surplus in both sexes and issue tags accordingly if healthy population levels are to be maintained.

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