Deer sighting survey, hunting license application period opens Thursday, Aug. 1

Deer are seen in Bristol, Rhode Island, in April 2023. (Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)

If you see a deer, say something. That’s what the state’s environmental agency is asking Rhode Islanders to do when its summer deer survey opens on Thursday, Aug. 1.

Thursday is also the first day to apply for hunting permits .

For the fifth year, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) is leading an effort to record live deer sightings across the state. For each sighting, participants are asked to report the number of male, female and baby deers observed, along with location information and additional pictures or comments if needed. The DEM recommends making observations during dawn to dusk, and to avoid including the same deer multiple times in submitted counts.

Fawns can be identified by their shorter snouts, rather than their white spots, which are not always present.

“This data will help DFW [Department of Fish and Wildlife] biologists obtain fawn-to-doe ratios and an index of reproductive rates through time, informing sustainable management of the state’s deer population,” according to a DEM statement.

Participants can report sightings from Aug. 1 through Sept. 30 via ArcGIS Survey123 , the same platform DEM uses for its community surveys of amphibians, reptiles and wild turkeys in the Ocean State. Sightings can be filed via Survey123 on both computers and smartphones.

While surveys help the state understand the local deer population, the DEM notes that hunters help the state manage it.

A license is required to hunt wild animals in Rhode Island, and special permits are needed to hunt deer. Applications for hunting open Aug. 1 for the hunting season that begins in September. Different types of weapons (muzzleloaders, shotguns, archery) are allowed at different times in the season. The full hunting rulebook for Rhode Island, with stipulations on everything from dress code to use of hunting dogs, can be found online.

A single permit allows a hunter to harvest one antlered or antlerless deer. Rhode Island residents pay $13 online for a single permit. A permit costs $13.50 when purchased in-person at a local, licensed vendor , which includes bait shops, public libraries and Wal-Marts. Out-of-state hunters will pay $26.50 online and $27.50 at a vendor. Residents can also buy an “All Outdoors” package deal, which grants permits for five antlerless deer and two antlered deer. The annual revenue from approximately 70,000 licenses, permits, stamps and tags has contributed more than $235 million to the Rhode Island economy, according to the DEM.

In 1941, there were an estimated 662 deer in the state. But since the reintroduction of regulated hunting in 1957 , the deer and hunter populations have slowly grown in tandem. A hunter sentiment survey conducted by DEM in 2022 found that 72% of Rhode Island deer hunters were satisfied with their hunts in the state. The deer population seems to be stable from year-to-year at favorite hunting spots, 52% of hunters observed, while 22% thought the population was decreasing.

The state deer harvest reached its apex in 2008, with around 3,000 harvested, but dipped from 2009 to 2015. It has increased pretty much annually since then, the DEM wrote in 2023. In the 2022-2023 hunting season, hunters harvested 2,705 deer .

Some researchers recommend limiting hunts for bucks, or male deer, and focusing instead on female deer as a better means of managing the deer population. In the hunter sentiment survey, 51% of hunters weren’t picky about the gender of their prey, and said they’d hunt “any deer they see.” But 38% of hunters did voice a preference for mature bucks.

Smaller deer populations mean there aren’t as many animals to compete for resources, which can reduce the risk of deer starvation in the winter months when food is harder to obtain.

Hunters, meanwhile, benefit from a bounty of food: Rhode Island’s 2023-2024 hunting season produced 49 tons of venison, which the DEM estimates as about 200,000 meals. Typically, deer meat is frozen and eaten throughout the year.

The state also benefits from the hunt, as hunters’ purchases of licenses, permits firearms and ammo help subsidize wildlife conservation. The federal Wildlife and Sportfish Restoration Program redistributes weapon sale funds to states for environmental management, wildlife restoration and land conservation. Rhode Island received a little over $7 million from the program in 2023.

There’s also one way to obtain a deer in Rhode Island with only a driver’s license: A bill signed into law by Gov. Dan McKee in June allows drivers the right to take the carcass of a deer that collides with their vehicle, provided the collision is reported properly to DEM.

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