The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has finished compiling deer harvest logs from 2024.

DNR Conservation Officer Jeremy King says that as of October 19th, biologists within the organization had finished going over the reported numbers, including those deer believed to have perished from Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD).

“Last year in Guthrie County, we were hit the hardest of any county in the state with the deer loss on EHD or ‘blue tongue.’ And we’ve been kind of waiting to see what it would look like as far as hunter harvest numbers and things like that. We’re down about 30 percent on our harvest from this time last year, and about 35 percent down from the last five year average. So we are starting to see that that blue tongue did take a pretty good hit here in the area. Last year, our best guess is we lost probably close to 3,000 deer due to that in the county.”

King mentions that this shouldn’t discourage hunters from going out during the deer seasons, especially with archery season currently ongoing. He adds that while the population took a hit, there are still plenty of deer, it just might be a little more difficult to find them.