Gentlemen,

I heard so much about Canada's wildlife and the opportunities to hunt.For a citizen/resident, how much hunting one can get in terms of deer family? I am not interested in piling up numbers, but just curious.With such huge swaths of land,low human population and vast number of animals,how many deer sized animals one can get to shoot? Many thanks in advance.

Best-
Locksley,R.

6 cervides, 3 cats, one dog, one ox, 3 bears, one antelope, two sheep, one goat and a partridge in a pear tree.

The vast numbers of animals is not always the case. For example, I think that in Sweden there are more moose harvested each yr, than the total living population of moose in the giant province of Ontario!

In Nova Scotia the total population of whitetail deer is perhaps only 50,000 and Moose 5000 or less. Only 300 moose hunting licences per draw each yr.


Cervides are: whitetail deer, mule deer, blacktail deer, Wapiti, moose, caribou. (It is possible to make distinctions between eastern whitetail deer and western whitetail deer.)

We used to be able to hunt three Sasquatch per year, kind of a bonus, that came with your deer license. Unfortunately, with Global Warming and all, this is being dicontinued and our government is considering listing them as an endangered species. Right now, there is a lot of public pressure to introduce a quota on Natives, the largest source of Wildlife predation, we suffer from.
Grizz

Some years back there was a thread about sasquatch on the Bowsite. When I checked it there were maybe three separate conversations going, with the skeptics, the true believers and the scientists all talking at each other. Then some genius posted just:

Elvis had big feet...

They finally cut it off at over 1200 posts.

quote:

Originally posted by Exit31:
6 cervides, 3 cats, one dog, one ox, 3 bears, one antelope, two sheep, one goat and a partridge in a pear tree.

The vast numbers of animals is not always the case. For example, I think that in Sweden there are more moose harvested each yr, than the total living population of moose in the giant province of Ontario!

In Nova Scotia the total population of whitetail deer is perhaps only 50,000 and Moose 5000 or less. Only 300 moose hunting licences per draw each yr.


Cervides are: whitetail deer, mule deer, blacktail deer, Wapiti, moose, caribou. (It is possible to make distinctions between eastern whitetail deer and western whitetail deer.)

Thanks for your inputs,gents.

Exit31,educate me please.What could be the reason for such low numbers of game you mentioned.I always thought Canada to be a heaven for vast number of game animals.some guys here, in UK, get to shoot so many deer year round.Thanks again.

Best-
Locksley,R.

quote:

6 cervides, 3 cats, one dog, one ox, 3 bears, one antelope, two sheep, one goat and a partridge in a pear tree.

The vast numbers of animals is not always the case. For example, I think that in Sweden there are more moose harvested each yr, than the total living population of moose in the giant province of Ontario!

In Nova Scotia the total population of whitetail deer is perhaps only 50,000 and Moose 5000 or less. Only 300 moose hunting licences per draw each yr.


Cervides are: whitetail deer, mule deer, blacktail deer, Wapiti, moose, caribou. (It is possible to make distinctions between eastern whitetail deer and western whitetail deer.)

Why shall there not be patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? Abraham Lincoln

Sorry, no antelope in North America....what people call antelope are actually pronghorn and not part of the antelope family at all.

There are three sheep if you don't count the California bighorn and if you want to start breaking caribou into sub species, there are 5 sub species of those alone.

Robin: here in Alberta you could easily shoot a dozen or more ungulates in a single year but how much meat do you really need. The great thing about Canada, is hunting is not limited to the wealthy on estates. Here much is public land plus access to private land is still fairly easy to get.

In Quebec the most popular ungulates are Whitetail deer and moose. In the 2007 season a total of 74873 deer were registered and a total of 26060 moose were registered. As for Caribou the total is 16556 harvested in 2007-2008 season.
Considering that a hunter is allowed 1 deer per year, except Anticosti island where you are permited two to four depending on the type of licence you hold,1 moose per two hunters, and 2 caribou per year. Do the math and you will see that there are many people hunting in Quebec. You must consider also that Caribou and Anticosti deer are too expensive for the average hunter.

Personally my hunting time in this great country goes like this. Spring through summer I hunt marmots and crows, fall is deer and grouse, all winter its coyotes,foxes and if a wolf passes through my line of sight well that was a mistake on it's part.

Depending on your region in BC, you can hunt
15 Black tail, 1-2 Mulies, 1-2 White tail, 1 Moose, 1 Caribou, 1 Big Horn, 1 Small Horn, 1 Mountain Goat, 2 Black Bear, 1-2 Cougar and 3 or more Wolves.

You forgot two sub species of elk and grizzly bear .366 and of course there are fallow deer on the gulf Islands.

Generally, one per year is the rule. Lots of hunting on the lottery system. Sometimes you can wait years to get drawn for a paticular species in a certain area. Here in Alberta, Elk, Moose, Whitetail deer, Mule deer, Mountain sheep, Antelope, Mountain Goat, cougar, black bear are classified as big game species. Used to have a Grizzly hunt, on draw, but there is a moratorium on that, till the bears kill enough tree huggers to change their mind. Lots of non game species. Wolves seem to becoming m ore numerous, coyotes and of course the ubiquitous Richardson's ground squirrel, popularly known as a gopher.
Grizz

Exit 31 mentioned one OX which I presume was the Muskox on the north.

I don't think anyone has mentioned Bison (or Buffalo)which can be hunter in some areas of B.C. and Alberta.
But neather of these is in the deer family which the original question was about.
If you got the draws you could take a Moose and an Elk in Alberta. Then for White-tail and mule deer:
The deer numbers are fairly high in Alberta in most areas (esp. white-tails) and there are a lot of opportunities to take "antlerless" deer on special permits.
I recon if a fellow bought the over the counter permits and got all the possible draws one could shoot 16 or more deer in Alberta in one season. Most of those would be "antlerless".

Robin in Rocky

Hunting in canada sucks, there are no animals here and there are people everywhere. I would suggest hunting in the states if possible.

Thanks once again folks.

quote:

Originally posted by sheephunterab:
Robin: here in Alberta you could easily shoot a dozen or more ungulates in a single year but how much meat do you really need. The great thing about Canada, is hunting is not limited to the wealthy on estates. Here much is public land plus access to private land is still fairly easy to get.

Thanks for you reply. As I said earlier, I personally am not interested in piling up deer carcasses.I am more interested in the potential amount of game available to an average hunter.Just academic curiosity.You are right about private land and access to hunting in UK to a large extent.

Would it be safe to assume that an average Canadian hunter gets to shoot more than the average American hunter?

Best-
Locksley,R

quote:

Originally posted by Grizzly Adams:
Generally, one per year is the rule. Grizz

Could you please explain "one per year is the rule"? You mean one animal per species?

Best-
Locksley,R

I just made the drive from Anchorage to Kirkland WA. On HWY 37 just below Good Hope Lake I video taped 9 Black Bear on the side of the road in a 10 mile stretch. Also video taped 2 Caribou in the middle of the HWY.

quote:

Originally posted by RobinOLocksley:

quote:

Originally posted by Grizzly Adams:
Generally, one per year is the rule. Grizz

Could you please explain "one per year is the rule"? You mean one animal per species?

Yes, that's it, generally. But in some areas there are extra tags to be had, for deer mostly. Oh, and two black bears per year, roughly in the Northern half of the provinceI find that there is a lot more hunting to do than I have time for unfortunately.

Frans

quote:

Would it be safe to assume that an average Canadian hunter gets to shoot more than the average American hunter?

I would say not by a long shot. I live in southern Ontario which is fairly temperate, and there are good hunting opportunities for deer. Still cross over into Northern NY and there are deer poping out of every corner. I did this trip to pick up a lath in Mass. taking me through the thousand islands area. Saw more deer in about an hour of available light, just tooling south, than would see in the average year in Ontario, Why? Further norht you go the less food there is. You do, however, pick up on the size of individual animals. Whitetails also do very well in agricultural areas. US is heavily planted. So you end up with the odd state that has 1 deer a day seasons, but they will tend to be smaller.

Both countries have declining hunter participation, so between conservation and declining interest should be the good old days.

One thing local hunters look for is the length of the hunting season. I live in New Brunswick as well as Ontario. NB has lots of animals, particularly relative to the small pop, but it has very short seasons a few weeks. A long winter also. How does that compare to some place with year round seasons in the US, for various species. Same deal with fishing.

There is still lots of opportunity.