Entering a dangerous time of year when motorists and deer often collide, wildlife officials are boosting efforts to cull the herd and, they hope, reduce damage.
More than half of all deer-car collisions occur from October through December; the most dangerous month is November, when the peak of hunting season coincides with the peak of the deer mating season.
Wildlife officials warn motorists to be especially watchful between 6 to 9 p.m., when deer are most active and travel in groups.
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources is implementing new “deer-reduction zones” that create incentives for hunters in places where the whitetail population is flourishing.
The hunting season kicks off early in those zones, which can change each year, and the number of deer that hunters can legally bag is increased.
“We’re trying to manage the deer population as a resource for the greatest number of people in the state,” said Josh Griffin, a state wildlife biologist.
In Indiana, about 15,000 collisions between cars and deer were reported last year, down from a peak of more than 16,000 in 2008, before the state began a multi-year effort to reduce the deer population by nearly 25 percent.
Deer-reduction zones are located in urban, suburban and rural areas in places with a trio of factors — deer habitat, few natural predators and increasing numbers of people or cars.
The state in the past has designated “urban hunting zones” to draw hunters to areas where the sport had dwindled as the deer population had grown.
The revised approach gives biologists more flexibility to respond to changes in the deer population throughout the state, wildlife officials say.
A deer-reduction zone in central Indiana, for example, includes portions of two counties that are the state’s fastest-growing in human terms: Boone and Hendricks. The counties saw a combined 336 deer-car collisions last year, up from 325 the year before.
In Vigo and the six Indiana counties nearest it, Greene had the most deer-car collisions in 2014 with 241. Vigo had 219. Vermillion had the fewest in the seven-county area with 61.
In deer-reduction zones, the hunting season started in mid-September, about two weeks before the regular season. Hunters in those areas are allowed to take up to 10 deer, including two bucks, which is more than twice the limit in urban hunting zones of the past.
“We think the added incentives will help,” Griffin said.
Not everyone is happy about the new zones.
Matthew Barton, president of Indiana Whitetail Deer Herd Management, a hunters group, worries the plan’s 10-deer limit may thin herds too quickly.
“We don’t agree with the number, but we understand what wildlife officials are trying to do,” he said.
Swelling deer populations can cause a range of nuisances for humans, but the greatest threat may be potential collisions with automobiles, which increase late in the year.
Earlier this month, State Farm, one of the nation’s largest auto insurers, released its annual report on the likelihood of motorists hitting deer.
In Indiana, the odds of a driver hitting a deer are 1 in 142, higher than the national probability of 1 in 169.
Chances of a car-deer collision in Indiana have increased 21 percent over last year, though the picture varies significantly by county.
In populous Allen County, with its busy segment of Interstate 69, there were 443 deer-car collisions last year, down from a peak of 531 in 2008.
Just north, in sparsely populated Steuben County, there were 398 deer-car collisions in 2014, down from 529 in 2008. Interstate 69 also runs through that county, which is just south of the border with Michigan, where deer are flourishing.
State Farm ranks West Virginia as the riskiest state for drivers, with 1 in 44 odds of a deer-car collision.
The state where drivers are least likely to hit a deer: Hawaii. Motorists there have a 1 in 8,765 chance of a car-deer collision.