- Andrew 04/22/2003, ID=2082

Hello Andrew,

Rain and snow won't bother turkeys much unless it continues and is quite heavy. A good hard rain will cause the birds to sit tight, and that is probably why you didn't see birds. Snowy, rainy weather also causes the birds to stay quiet, at least quieter than normal for the breeding season. Weather usually isn't a problem for turkeys except in winters in the north, where deep snows make feeding difficult and below zero weather for more than 5-6 straight days can lead to mortality. Cold spring rains will also hurt birds in late May and early June, when the poults are out and about. Poults 10-15 days old are especially vulnerable too long, cold rain periods where they just get so wet that they can't move, and they die. Younger poults are able to get nourishment from yolk sacs and are also able to brood under the mother until the rains pass. Hope your hunting luck gets better.

- Ralph Harris 03/12/2003, ID=2037

Ralph..........I don't know the laws in KY or IN, but if you are correct, that you can only take one buck with a bow or gun, then this will affect bowhunting numbers. That is a negative for sure. I'd love to know what percentage of all harvestable bucks are taken every year in KY or IN. I know that in my state of WV, it's over 80%. This means that few bucks live to be 2 1/2 or 3 1/2 years of age. This means that the young bucks do most of the breeding. Not sure whether this is good or bad, but it isn't normal. It also means that unless the does are really being harvested heavily, which I doubt, that the adult buck to doe sex ratio is way out of balance. How many adult does do you see for every antlered buck? My guess is that it is around 8 or so. What should be out there is one to one or one buck to two does. So, having a skewed sex ratio affects deer breeding behavior and that affects fawn survival, and other breeding factors. So, I'm not a fan of allowing multiple bucks to be taken. If you want to get more quality bucks, and really make hunters happy, you need to harvest many more adult does, and reduce the buck harvest. In particular, not only reduce the buck harvest, but let the little bucks walk. Pennsylvania is now trying this approach state wide and after thef irst year, things are looking very optimistic.

If the bowhunters in KY or IN are not happy about being limited to one buck with bow or gun, the groups that can influence that would be your state and local archery associations and clubs. Outsiders won't be listened too. It has to come from inside the state. By the way........I agree with you that bowhunters have little impact on buck numbers, but saying that bowhunters can take 2 bucks while saying that gun hunters cannot, is asking for a major fight among hunters. We can't afford that, and from a political perspective, your game agency can't either.

Good question.. Thanks for writng.

- JACK ARNETT 02/20/2003, ID=2033

Jack, Great question. The National Wildlife Federation used to be a major pro-hunting, pro-wildlife organization. Although I have not researched them, there is definitely a trend at the national level of that organization toward a different view to hunting. They have state chapters and most are pro-hunting. But at the national level, I'm a bit concerned.

Now to the second part of the question. I do not know of one source that will tell you whether a national organization is pro hunting or not. My suggestion is to join as a member of the U. S. Sportsmen's Alliance out of Columbus Ohio. Then you will definitely be supporting hunting, and you will also get their newsletter that will keep you up on all organizations and groups that oppose hunting. See them at www.ussportsmens.org.

- Allison 02/04/2003, ID=2025

Dear Allison, First, some clarifications from your question. You state that 'not many people believe it (hunting) is humane.' Actually, a large majority of the American population believe that hunting is important and valid for managing wildlife. And relative to bowhunting, only the animal rights groups perpetuate the myth that bowhunting leads to a slow and painful death. Studies show this is not correct. Think about this for a second. Would 3 million Americans bowhunt if their sole reason was to cause animals to die a slow death. Nothing is further from the heart of why we bowhunt. Bowhunters care about animals and deer, and they are much more knowledgeable about the realities of nature than members of the animal rights groups and the liberal press that perpetuates such erroneous thoughts and statements. All hunters take a hunter education course befoe they can hunt. (check the Hunter Education Association's web site for further information). And in many states, bowhunters must take an additional bowhunter education course that stresses shooting skills,, tracking, etc. (see details at the website of the National Bowhunter Education Foundation). This foundation has a neat paper on the truth about bow wounding based on the only major bow wounding study ever done in this country that specifically addresses the bow wounding issue. You might request a copy from them. Sincerely, Dave Samuel

Hi Brandy, THere are a lot of unanswered questions about CWD. Over the next few years, research will tell us a lot more, but right now we don't know much. Right now there does not seem to be any immunity to CWD. In other words, all animals who get CWD will die. However, there is much research to be done before we can confirm this. The latent time is at least 5 years. In other words, we know that some animals that did not show the disease, were moved from one game ranch to another CWD-free game ranch, and five years later, the disease appeared in that animal. So, an animal could appear normal and still have the disease. Yes, there is a live test for CWD........you have to remove part of the tonsil. However, for wild deer populations,, this test doesn't help you much. It would be way too costly to live capture wild deer and take a sample of tonsil tissue and test it. You'd have the expense of capture, then the expense of holding the animal until the test came back from the lab. Then if it was positive, you'd have to kill the animal. Hope this helps you. Best regards,

Be sure to visit Dr. Dave Samuel's Website - Dr. Dave Samuel is widely considered an authority on wildlife mgt. as well as the social and cultural influences of hunting. Dr. Dave spent 30 years as a wildlife professor and served as the conservation editor for Bowhunter Magazine since 1971. He is an author and much sought-after speaker in the topic of wildlife mgt. and hunting.