White-tailed deer featured on website
White-tailed deer are an integral part of the Illinois landscape, and a new website will provide up-to-date information about deer biology, management, research and regulations.
A random set of Illinois deer hunters and landowners were set to receive an e-mail invitation earlier in March to assist with finalizing the new Whitetailed Deer Illinois website.
White-tailed Deer Illinois is a combined effort led by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, IDNR, Division of Wildlife Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration and the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center.
Funding for the White-tailed Deer Illinois website was made available through Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Project W-147-T.
White-tailed Deer Illinois will offer a digest of biological information and facts to provide users with insights into the life history and management of the Illinois state mammal.
The site also is slated to contain information about white-tailed deer stakeholder groups (such as hunters, landowners, wildlife watchers and more), how deer hunting regulations are set and deer depredation and deer population control permits.
Scientific research activities related to deer and deer hunting also will be presented.
Several features of the site will, for the first time, provide users with levels of information which previously has been unavailable.
Users will have access to a searchable database of deer-vehicle accidents, and will be able to plot accidents on a state road map by year (2002-2012), month and day.
A second searchable database will allow users to search IDNR annual deer harvest data and Illinois Department of Transportation annual deer-vehicle accident, DVA, rate data.
The user may select the county and a range of years (from 1989 to the present), and view an image displaying both the total deer harvest and annual DVA information.
White-tailed Deer Illinois also will feature an online form for reporting sick and diseased deer.
IDNR noted that this process will greatly speed the collection and tracking of potential incidence of epizootic hemorrhagic disease and chronic wasting disease.
Information collected from hunters and landowners during the review process will be used to finalize the website, with release to the public anticipated to occur by April 1.