ALBANY, N.Y. — Hunters harvested an estimated 223,304 deer during the 2024-25 hunting season, up 6.4 percent from 209,781 deer in the 2023-24 hunting season, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) recently reported.
The 2024-25 estimated deer harvest included 122,427 antlered bucks (i.e., adult males) and 100,877 antlerless deer (i.e., adult females and fawns of either sex). Statewide, this represents a 9.1 percent increase in antlered buck harvest and a 3.4 percent rise in antlerless deer harvest from last season, the DEC said. However, the total deer harvest was slightly below the five-year average. The Western Finger Lakes and Lake Ontario Plains regions had the highest deer harvest densities, with more than 10 deer harvested per square mile.
“New York hunters had another safe and productive hunting season, providing a sustainable food source for themselves and their families and helping DEC manage the state’s deer herd,” DEC Commissioner Amanda Lefton said in announcing the report. “By engaging in safe and ethical hunting practices and reporting their harvest, hunters continued the tradition of being conservation stewards. We also thank hunters and responsible landowners for assisting in actions to reduce the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) to New York’s white-tailed deer and moose populations to help protect the future of deer hunting and support the sustainable use of venison.”
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DEC’s 2024-25 Deer Harvest Summary report provides tables, figures, and maps detailing the deer harvest and CWD surveillance efforts around the state, and is available at: https://dec.ny.gov/sites/default/files/2025-05/2024deerrpt.pdf.
