Fall generous for hunters from Quebec

Photo courtesy
Gilles Bellemare, hunter for more than 40 years, was shot and killed this deer male of 235 books to the plume atypical.

Hugo Duchaine

Friday, December 29, 2017 01:00

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Friday, December 29, 2017 01:00

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The fall has been good for the hunters of quebec, who have brought home one of the best harvests of deer in three years and nearly 6,000 moose more than the past year.

A little over 53 000 white-Tailed deer have been caught by over 141 500 fighters in 2017. A hunter on three harvested an animal, according to data published last week by the ministry of Forests, Fauna and Parks (MFFP).

This is the best crop of fighters from the 2013-2014 season. And those numbers do not include animals hunted on Anticosti island, where the activity was permitted up until the day before Christmas.

Winter

“The winter of 2017 has been clement in the majority of hunting areas, which is reflected by a stability or increase of the total harvest in most of them,” writes the MFFP in its preliminary assessment, explaining that the conditions were favorable to the reproduction of the species.

This abundance of deer, the hunter Simon Pellerin was quickly noticed in the Montérégie region. He shot a deer male from the first weekend of hunting in November, on its second day in the forest only.

“My hunt ended on Sunday [5 November] 15-h,” said the 29-year old man, who had spent the month of October to install a bait and cameras on his land. He had also seen several females during his first day in the forest.

Butcher busy

The butcher, with whom he went to carry his loot was overwhelmed earlier than in previous years, he adds.

In the Centre-du-Québec, Gilles Bellemare is particularly proud of having harvested a deer male at the plume atypical, only the second of this type that he has seen in over 40 years of hunting.

The owner of two stores, hunting and fishing to Plessisville and Victoriaville has demonstrated patience to shoot with a weapon with black powder, a massive animal of 235 pounds.

“If I had drawn on everything I’ve seen, the hunt would not have been long,’ said the man of 56 years old. It has also been noticed that the populations are abundant.

His hunting group has also managed to catch a moose in September.

Moose

It is not the only one, as with a harvest of more than 27 600 moose, 177 000 hunting permit holders have had a lot more luck than last year and almost as much in 2015.

The harvest, however, has not been the same everywhere. The MFFP denotes a decrease in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Côte-Nord, Outaouais and the Laurentides, while the moose have been hunted in greater numbers in Gaspésie, Mauricie and Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean.

Luc Tremblay, a hunter from La Sarre, in the Abitibi region, is just returned empty-handed this fall. The cameras that he installs in the forest have taken four times less pictures of game.

According to him, the moose are made discrete due to the heat of September and the predators more numerous.

White-Tailed deer

• 53 010 killed in 2017
• 52 842 in 2016 and 47 620 in 2015
• 141 500 permit holders

Moose

• 27 631 killed in 2017
• 21 879 in 2016 and 28 318 in 2015
• 177 000 licence holders

Black Bear

• 5236 killed in 2017
• 5630 in 2016 and 5423 in 2015
• 17 000 licence holders

Wild turkeys

• 7796 killed in 2017
• 5902 in 2016 and 4342 in 2015
• 16 564 permit holders

►The province of Québec has 285 000 hunters.

►The impact of hunting are mainly attributable to the moose, small game and white-Tailed deer. They amounted to$360 Million.

Source : Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks