Like many outdoor activities this year, hunting saw a large increase in participants.
The total number of deer hunters has been decreasing about 2 to 4% over the last few years, but this year there was a 4.8% increase.
Most of that was thanks to a large number of new hunters.
The amount of hunters aged 10 to 16 doubled, female hunters increased by 13% and apprentice license purchases went up 44%.
DNR Wildlife Biologist Vernon Richardson says this kind of jump is rare.
“We don’t see bumps like this in new hunters going back for the last five years. There’s always some new hunters, but this is a remarkable change in new hunters,” said Richardson.
Richardson also mentioned waterfowl hunting license purchases went up 40% and turkey licenses went up 30% this year.
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