Georgia WMA Deer Population Analysis by County
Smart scouting to save you time in the field.
Hartman-FinalProject-DeerScouting
Image sourced from google images as screenshot
Scouting plays a major role in the search for game animals and generally takes considerably more time than the hunt itself.
Although it takes a lot of work upfront, successful scouting optimizes the chances of successful harvests.
Why scout electronically? (Value your Time)
Because Georgia is a big state and electronic scouting can optimize site planning!
Once a general location to hunt has been determined electronically, traditional foot scouting can begin.
It begins by looking for higher concentrations of deer and harvest rates.
Left Image: Deer Harvests per Square Mile | Right Image: Deer per Square Mile
A visual comparison of harvest rate vs deer populations can be seen in the gif below. Harvest rates seem to be comparable to deer populations.
The darker the county, the more dense the populations and harvest rates are.
This trend is based on harvest rate from Dept. of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division (DNRWRD) survey data.
Other Conclusions
This graphic does not compare the number of hunters between counties. Counties with higher harvest rates may simply have more hunters in them to harvest deer vs counties with lower harvest rates. This data does not include poached animals either.
Deer populations and harvest rates sourced from DNRWRD.
The image below is a similar comparison, however, you can slide the image back and forth for a more thorough analysis.
Deer harvested per square mile vs total deer per square mile.
Landcover data sourced from USGS - https://www.usgs.gov/programs/gap-analysis-project/science/land-cover-data-download
So where do you find deer?
Food, Water, Shelter
Deer, in regards to dietary intake, aren't that different from you or me. They look for diverse environments that provide diverse foods and cover, just like a buffet in a restaurant.
Different foods grow in different environments, so logically, areas with diverse and stable ecosystems are going to attract animals of all sizes for food, water, and bedding or shelter requirements.
While scouting in person - it's not easy in a timely manner - to classify landcover where deer are likely to bed; or source food, water, and shelter, from the elements or other dangers.
Landcover data sourced from USGS - https://www.usgs.gov/programs/gap-analysis-project/science/land-cover-data-download
It could easily take an hour just to navigate through an overgrown pine forest/thicket while looking for landcover margins that merge in an attractive way for animals. And this might only cover a few acres.
It's much easier to look for diversity in landcover on a map whose extent covers several square miles.
This is a scalable approach when looking at several parks across many counties.
Area for Improvement:
The landcover map used from the USGS is from 2011. This study was conducted in 2022. 11 years is a fairly significant amount of time for landcover to change, so this portion of the study is only theoretical and will not be used in the actual scouting process at high resolution.
Where should you hunt for deer based on off of this study?
Regardless of which map you look at, north eastern GA has the highest concentration of deer and harvested deer by comparison to the rest of the state.
Remember, this does not include poaching stats or compare the number of hunters in each county.
Topology, Domains, Fields
Topology - very basic rules set for the infrastructure. Infrastructure (made of subtypes) must exist within the property lines of the WMA (boundary layer).
Fields: Fields were added to relevant tables when importing data from the DNR. There wasn't a direct way to import data. The data for the maps above were key-logged from the dashboard below . Data from prior years was copied out of this dashboard and pasted into an excel sheet for later analysis.
For analysis, display data was limited to two decimal places since 6 wasn't really meaningful.
Deer Harvest Dashboard (Public)
A form was not created for field scouting, so a domain was not set up for this project. However, when the field form is set up, domains will include animal types (squirrels, rabbits, deer, etc.), track types, etc.
Project Additions (for the future):
Form: collect scouting data while in the field using an app like field collector. Did you see tracks today? What kind? What animals were spotted? Do you see evidence that other hunters are in the area (like shotgun shells)? Et cetera.
Online Map: It'd be nice to get the map online and geofence the WMA boundaries so that it's more clear where the boundaries are while hunting.
Data and Image Credits
Hiking Image: https://bearfoottheory.com/eliminating-hiking-foot-pain-foot-rehab/
Maps were drafted in ArcGIS Pro using from the following locations:
GA DNRWRD: https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=874c15e6a480469389c27691a4c4addc and https://georgiawildlife.com/harvest-summaries (for deer)
Land cover data came from the USGS here: https://georgiawildlife.com/harvest-summaries
Georgia county lines sourced here: https://arc-garc.opendata.arcgis.com
