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Show 109,399 Deer Killed in Utah in 1963 Well Below Figure of Previous Year A total of 109,399 deer were taken by hunters during the 19C3 seasons, the department of fish and game announced today. This Is a reduction of 21,157 deer compared com-pared to the 1962 harvest of 130,-556 130,-556 animals. The figures show 165,531 hunters hunt-ers afield took 90,056 deer on the regular license for a hunter success suc-cess ration of 54.4 per cent. Of the animals taken on the regular license l(Kc bucks, 30 does. There were 19,343 aeer taken by special permit holders at a hunter success ration of 78.5. This was 13,559 fewer deer than were taken on special permits during 1962 when the Utah Board of Big Game Control set 17,765 more such permits than for the 1963 hunts. Department of fish and game director Harold S. Crane noted the principal factor for the reduced re-duced deer harvest of 1963 was the over-all reduction of the deer herds throughout the state. This was reflected in the decreased number of special permits made available by the Board for 1963 and the 5 decrease in hunter success on the regular license. The director noted that for many years the Board had programmed pro-grammed the hunts, both regular and special, to bring Utah's deer herds in balance with the available avail-able feed on each range. He said this had now been accomplished accomplish-ed to a large degree on most of these 62 herd units throughout the state. Opening day of the general deer season for 1964 is Saturday, October 17. Length of season and all other measures concerning the annual deer hunts will be set by the Board about July 1, when information from the public and the game-range management agencies has been gathered and is weighted before the final hunting schedules are drawn. |