EKB News

KENTUCKY...
Kentucky’s fall squirrel season opens Sat., Aug. 21 and the outlook is similar to last year.

This year, the 190-day season is split. The first segment of squirrel season opens Aug. 21 and closes for the opening weekend of modern gun deer season Nov. 13-14. Squirrel season opens again Nov. 15 and continues through Feb. 28, 2011. The daily bag limit is six squirrels.

Last year’s mast crop, the abundance of nuts and fruits produced by trees and other plants, determines this year’s estimate of the number of squirrels available to hunters.

Since 1953, wildlife biologists have conducted a survey of Kentucky’s most important producers of wildlife foods, determining the proportion of mast bearing trees. Squirrels rely on the mast from these trees during various times of the fall and winter. “Since we did not experience a failure of any of these important mast crops, at least some food was available to squirrels throughout a majority of the winter months,” said Robinson.

Early in the fall season, squirrels feed heavily on hickories. A good hunting strategy is to look for trees with maturing nuts that squirrels are beginning to cut. Often these trees are on dry, upland sites, such as hilltops, or flat benches along the contour of ridges.

Shotguns are a good choice for early-season squirrel hunting since leaves make it difficult to clearly see squirrels.

But, the abundance of leaves also provides hunters with some advantages: squirrels make a lot of noise when they jump from limb to limb, and rustling leaves help hunters locate squirrels in the crowns of tall trees.

To help determine the health of Kentucky’s squirrel population, the Squirrel Hunting Cooperator Survey was developed in 1995 as a volunteer initiative. Biologists use the collected data to monitor squirrel population trends in Kentucky. Each year, participating hunter cooperators are mailed a new hunting log, the results of the survey and a small gift for participating, such as lapel pin or ball cap.

Hunters simply record the information about their hunts as the season progresses, then mail their survey to the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife when they’re finished hunting for the season. The mailing address is: No. 1 Sportsman’s Lane, Frankfort, Ky., 40601. Logs must be sent no later than May 31, 2011.

September was the most productive month for squirrel hunters last season, with the highest number of squirrels seen and killed per hunt.

To participate in the 2010-11 Squirrel Hunting Cooperator Survey, please print a copy of the survey at: www.fw.ky.gov/smallgamelogs.asp, or call 1-800-858-1549 and ask for one to be mailed to you.