Southern Ontario: The dominant influence on hunting across 

 the whole of southern Ontario was the heavy rain, during the 

 first week of the season. Many hunters stayed home or sat 

 in their camps rather than face the downpour. The rain was 

 lightest towards the western side of southern Ontario, but 

 was heavy from Lindsay eastward. The effect is evident in 

 hunting success figures. Interviews with 15,659 hunters in 

 Parry Sound, Lindsay and Tweed districts revealed that only 

 in Parry Sound was the hunting as good as in 1965. In 

 Lindsay the overall success dropped from 21.1% to 16.5%, 

 and in Tweed from 29.0% to 17.4%. This was entirely due to 

 the inclement weather. As usual, there were great differ- 

 ences between organized hunters who generally had about 

 20% to 25% success and casual hunters who usually only 

 had about 5%. The Bruce Peninsula was not so much affec- 

 ted by rain and showed a slightly higher hunter success 

 than in 1965, but both Lake Simcoe and Kemptville districts 

 were lower. 



Farther north in North Bay and Pembroke Districts, hunters 

 have been seeing fewer deer in recent years due to the 

 mortality resulting from deep snow during the winters of 

 1958-'59 and 1959-'60. This year they were further discour- 

 aged by the miserable rainy weather. The overall hunter 

 success was only 7.3% in North Bay District and 16.9% in 

 Pembroke District. Surprisingly the success of casual 

 hunters in Pembroke District remained high. At 9.6% it was 

 higher than in Parry Sound, Lindsay or Tweed. It may be 

 that organized hunters were more easily persuaded to stay 

 in camp or the severe winters may have been worse in the 

 northern parts of the district where most hunt camps were 

 located. 



In Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie districts, the story was 

 different. Manitoulin Island hunter success was up slightly 

 to 29.2% in spite of rather poor weather. Unfortunately, the 

 restricted land area on which this hunting took place led 

 to overcrowding and there were complaints by hunters that 

 they were interfering with each other. In Sault Ste. Marie 

 district, the smaller number of hunters found that the deer 

 herd was recovering from the mortality of 1958-'59 and 

 1959-'60. They had the highest success for many years at 

 30.0%. 



Table 2 



PER CENT SUCCESS OF DEER HUNTERS 



IN SOUTHERN ONTARIO 



DISTRICT 1965 1966 

 % %_ 



Parry Sound 19.0 19.2 



Lindsay 21.1 16.5 



Tweed 29.0 17.4 



Bruce Peninsula 10.7 12.4 



Lake Simcoe 24.4 18.3 



Kemptville 27.9 25.9 



Northwestern Ontario: The sequence of mild and severe 

 winters has been different in northwestern Ontario. The 

 most recent severe winter was in l%5-66 and its effect on 

 the deer was evident in the age distribution of deer and 

 hunter success reported from the 1966 hunt. The deer 

 which were yearlings during the hunting season had been 

 fawns through the severe winter and had suffered most. 

 This was shown by the decrease in percentage of yearlings 

 in Fort Frances, Sioux Lookout and, particularly, in Kenora 



District where yearlings were little more than half the per- 

 centage of 1965. In addition, the severe winter left does in 

 poor shape for raising young, and in Kenora fawns de- 

 creased from 24.7% of the kill in 1%5 to 12.6% in 1966. 

 Such a loss of deer was bound to affect hunter success. All 

 three Districts showed decreases but Sioux Lookout was 

 worst, dropping from 28.2% in 1965 to 13.6% in 1966. Al- 

 though hunter success also decreased in Fort Frances and 

 Kenora Districts, it was still higher than in any other part 

 of the Province. 



Evidence of Winter Deer Mortality in Northwestern Ontario 

 during the Winter of 1965-'66 as revealed by 

 data from the 1966 Deer Hunt: 



Table 3 



PERCENTAGES OF YEARLINGS EXAMINED IN 

 NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO DURING THE 

 1965 AND 1966 HUNTING SEASONS 



DISTRICT 1965 1966 



Fort Frances 26.0 16.5 



Kenora 32.7 18.4 



Sioux Lookout 41.0 38.9* 



*only 18 animals examined 



Table 4 



HUNTER SUCCESS IN NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO 



DURING THE 1965 AND 1966 HUNTING SEASONS 



DISTRICT 1965 1966 



Fort Frances 49.2 43.6 



Kenora 48.1 32.9 



Sioux Lookout 28.2 13.6 



Prospects for 1967: The winter of 1966-'67 was hard but not 

 severe in southern Ontario. Therefore, it is predicted that, 

 given normal hunting weather, hunter success should be 

 somewhat better than last year. In northwestern Ontario, 

 hunter success will probably be about the same as last 

 year, but somewhat lower than in the past. 



Deer Range Improvement: Since the winter was mild no 

 emergency operations were undertaken, but deer range im- 

 provement work continued on about the same scale as in 

 previous years. Various treatments were tried on small 

 areas to compare costs, to find methods which produced 

 most browse and to find the browse utilized by deer. A total 

 of 225.2 acres was treated in six districts at a total cost of 

 $13,383. This work has provided us with much needed exper- 

 ience in deer range improvement as well as providing food 

 for the deer. 



Table 5 



DEER RANGE IMPROVEMENT WORK, 



WINTER 1965'-66 



DISTRICT Size of Area Treated Cost 



(net acres) 



Sault Ste. Marie 25J $ 5,541 



Sudbury 8.5 1,700 



North Bay 40.0 (gross) 792 



Pembroke 60.0 1,556 



Parry Sound 91.0 3,730 



Tweed marking trees 64 



Total 2252 $13,383 



