Deer Hunting In Alabama Brings In Big Bucks, Lots Of Doe

By Robert DeWitt

Today’s deer hunters don’t understand that times weren’t always so good for their sport, said Chuck Sykes, director of the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries.

“They have no clue,” Sykes said. “Unless you are in your late 50s, you don’t understand that there weren’t always deer in Alabama.”

When gun deer season opens throughout the state Saturday, Nov. 18, more than 150,000 hunters will take to the woods in an annual autumn ritual. They enjoy a resource that was once almost extinguished and pump millions of dollars into the state’s economy, particularly in rural areas.In the early 20th century, habitat loss and unregulated hunting had reduced Alabama’s deer population to a remnant of little more than 5,000 animals living in the Tombigbee and Alabama River bottoms in the southern half of the state. Today, Sykes conservatively estimates the deer population at more than 1 million animals, and some estimate that it runs as high as 1.6 million. There are deer in all 67 Alabama counties.

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