And it sucks that our ODNR doesn't share that kind of info. Goes back to that education thing I was pushing a few months back.
Great post, thanks for sharing
They will not prominently share that information for a couple of reasons.
1. They claim to be managing localized populations by county. Publicizing an EHD outbreak will only cause people to question why they didn't lower the bag limits for that County too offset the increased kill. I mean any so-called deer management person would take such a highly fatal disease into consideration wouldn't they?
The problem with that is.
2. They have zero clue what the live population of a county is. Therefor if asked the simplest question of " what percentage died" they couldn't begin to answer it.
3. They don't care about any of the above. A good old EHD outbreak is just icing on the deer decimation cake. Free kills to lower the population more.
When it struck massively in Southern Ohio back in 2007- 8 time timeframe they absolutely refused to admit it was even happening. I remember members finding dozens of dead deer on their property and contacting the ODNR who said that it was not EHD. I remember those same individuals reporting it to their local game warden. Then another person calling the same game warden to ask about EHD in their County and were told there wasn't any. Eventually after being faced with insurmountable evidence and pictures they admitted it but very very much downplayed the extent to which it happened. That very next year we got bonus gun season and more tags.