Several factors are converging this year to make the deer rut season even more dangerous for motorists.
“People need to be more aware that deer have many reasons this season to be on the move,” said Maj. Roger Tietz, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) operations support manager, enforcement division, Camp Riley.
When deer are mating, they’re much more mobile and the peak of that rut traditionally occurs the second week of November, according to the DNR.
“In the evening, deer are moving to road right-of-ways because of the grass,” Tietz said. “When you see them at night, they’re always grazing. With the rut season, then a buck comes along.”
The firearms open, which begins Nov. 7, also drives deer around. And this year, the cool summer and wet fall have delayed harvesting, so field equipment will be scattering deer out into roadways. “The increased field activity does tend to move deer around more,” Tietz said.
Motorists need to be alert for deer at all times in November, but especially during dusk and dawn, said Pipestone County Sheriff Dan Delaney.
“You should be scanning and searching the roadside, especially where there are deer crossing and warning signs,” Delaney said. “Reduce your speed at night and if you see one deer, expect others to follow.”
An estimated one million drivers hit deer in 2008, according to the Deer Crash Information Clearinghouse — a number that can only be estimated, as statistics are not kept in all states and as many as 50 percent of deer-vehicle collisions are believed to go unreported.
In Minnesota, the Department of Vehicles recorded 2,528 deer-vehicle crashes in 2008. In Pipestone County, 40 deer-vehicle collisions have occurred during the one-year period between last October and this Oct. 29, according to Sheriff Office statistics.
The numbers show that despite precautions, deer and drivers will meet. When that happens, the most important thing motorists must remember is not to swerve, Delaney said.
“If you swerve, you will undoubtedly lose control and create a more serious situation by colliding with another vehicle or a tree or something,” he said.
Instead, Delaney advised to break firmly with both hands on the steering wheel and come to a controlled stop upon the shoulder of the roadway before turning on hazard lights and calling 911.
At one time, the Pipestone County Highway Department would be called to haul hit deer away; not anymore.
“The rendering plant used to pick up deer,” said Dave Halbersma, Pipestone County highway engineer. “Once the chronic wasting disease came around, they wouldn’t do it anymore. So we pull them into the ditch and get them out of the way for public safety.”
Drivers who hit deer are entitled to the meat after securing a permit. Pipestone County Sheriff’s deputies works with the DNR and can issue those permits from the office or immediately at the scene, Delaney said.
“The driver is offered the deer first and if they’re not interested, we have a sign-up list at the Sheriff’s Office,” Delaney said.
Growing the herd
The firearm opener for the deer hunting season begins Nov. 7 and this year, Pipestone County is under more restrictions than in previous years.
The designation this year is a youth antlerless only area, with a one-deer limit. That means adult (archery, firearm and muzzleloader) and disabled hunters are restricted to bucks only, but a limited number of youth-only antlerless permits are available.
Southwest Minnesota has been in the lottery system for hunting antlerless deer since the implementation of that system in the early 1970s. That means that hunters in Pipestone County can take all the bucks they want, but must apply for and receive a permit to take an antlerless deer.
“That’s the more restrictive portion of the state; always has been, always will be,” said Brian Haroldson, wildlife research biologist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR). “We have less deer habitat because of the intensive agriculture so we have to restrict our hunters more.”
But this year, those tags aren’t available to any but youths. And that restriction is a new one for Pipestone County and other southwestern permit areas.
“The reason for that is based on public input meetings we had in 2005 and 2006,” Haroldson said. “Our roundtables asked us to increase the herd size.”
Currently, there are an estimated two-to-five deer per square mile in Pipestone County, Haroldson said. The goal is to increase that herd size by 25 percent.
“In order to increase the herd, we have to protect the antlerless component,” Haroldson said.
Deer deterrents?
Different devices are used to reduce the likelihood of deer-vehicle collisions (DVCs), measures that range from the familiar, such as deer warning signs, to the odd, such as wooden deer-flagging silhouettes constructed along roadways (deer raise their tails to expose their white undersurface as a warning sign).
Laying off the winter salt might help as salt creates a natural attraction for wildlife, as may reduced speed limits, illuminated roadways, exclusionary fencing and roadside vegetation management.
But of some 14 such countermeasures, none received a ringing endorsement from the Deer Crash Information Clearinghouse, part of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Excellence in Rural Safety, which studied the effectiveness of the counter measures and came to no clear conclusions.
Air-activated deer whistles, for example, are used with conflicting results.
For that reason, Pipestone County Sheriff Dan Delaney is skeptical of them and said drivers should be as well.
“They make people overconfident,” Delaney said. “Don’t rely on them. There are really no studies that say they do or don’t work.”
The best countermeasure to avoid a collision?
“Slow down and be alert,” Delaney said.
