It is early January, and it is a great time to look over the new hunting laws and regulations in your state for 2009.
I often notice bag limits and season dates can change a little from year to year.
Lets take a look at why that is.
When an animal is born in the wild, the chances of that animal seeing its first birthday are slim.
Disease, predators, weather, food supply, local habitat conditions and the survival of its mother all play a part in the survival of that baby animal.
The stronger and more intelligent of the species tend to live, while the weak and less savvy tend to perish.
The may seem cruel to humans, but it is natures way.
All wild animal species produce more young than the local habitat can support.
Its simply a numbers game nature has derived over ions of time.
The mortality rate of a species determines to what extent the production of young is over produced.
Animals from the rodent family like rabbits and squirrels tend to breed large litters and more than once a season.
Game birds like woodcock, grouse and turkey will produce a clutch of 8-12 eggs per breeding pair.
From these small game animals, 60 to 80 percent of the new born population will die each year.
Big game animals like whitetail deer have low reproduction rates compared to small game animals.
The mortality rate is low in comparison, but 15 to 35 percent of the young will not reach adulthood.
For small game, the main mechanism of mortality is predation of nests by predators such a raccoon, fox and coyote and raptors.
Even Blue Jays will raid a nest of eggs.
For both small and big game, disease and unusually wet or cold Spring weather take their toll on the young.
When populations of a game species go unchecked, eventually the food runs short and disease will set in.
The local population will plummet far below the average population size.
Along with the game population the predator population will also increase and crash with their food supply.
The peak population numbers can come fast as unchecked population growth is exponential.
However, recovery from a population crash takes a while as there are far fewer adults to restock the population.
Our state wildlife biologists know all these facts and set hunting limits based on long term population trends as well short term conditions.
For example our local black duck population has been declining for years, therefore, taking of black duck has been severely restricted.
On the other hand, resident Canada goose populations have exploded, and special seasons have been created to cull the excess bird population.
State wildlife biologists try to balance the hunters take of the excess population every year to prevent this cycle of boom and crash in game animal populations.
Game species management is not just for hunters enjoyment.
When our local whitetail deer population exploded, road kills went way up, a few leading to human deaths.
So, when you look at the 2009 hunting laws in your state, remember a lot of work went into setting the season and limits.
Obey those laws not just to stay out of trouble, but because we owe it to the game we so love to hunt.