AGFC plans Arkansas Deer Update for hunters

Oct. 11, 2023

Randy Zellers

Assistant Chief of Communications

LITTLE ROCK — Biologists and staff from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission will host a live Arkansas Deer Update on the AGFC YouTube channel beginning at 6 p.m. Oct. 19 for hunters heading into the meat of deer season.

Ralph Meeker, the AGFC’s Deer Program coordinator, will kick off the event with an overview of Arkansas’s deer population and harvest trends from the last few years. He’ll be followed by AJ Riggs, AGFC wildlife health biologist, with an update on chronic wasting disease in Arkansas’s deer herd and ways hunters can help monitor and slow the spread of this fatal neurological disease in Arkansas. Jeremy Brown, the AGFC’s Deer Management Assistance Program coordinator will follow up with instructions for the hundreds of deer camps enrolled in DMAP to ensure they tag and check their deer properly and work with the AGFC to maximize the potential of their property for hunting season.

An additional presentation on the new AGFC hunting license system and smartphone app will familiarize hunters with how to create a new account, check their deer (even without a cell signal) and add youth hunters to their account.

Viewers are encouraged to email their questions to deerinfo@agfc.ar.gov during the show to be asked and answered on air.

“We want to hear from everyone going into deer season and help them out,” Cory Gray, AGFC Research Division chief said. “We’ll try to address all of the general questions about Arkansas’s deer and deer hunting being asked by a lot of people. If it’s a question about a specific place or person, we’ll follow up with a direct reply the following day.”

Anyone interested in the state of Arkansas’s deer herd can click this link at 6 p.m. Oct. 19 to watch. You can also subscribe to the channel at www.youtube.com/@ArkansasGameandFishCommission, From a laptop, click the bell and select “All Notifications” and you’ll be reminded when the AGFC starts a new livestream or posts a new video. You can also change your notifications setting on a mobile phone by clicking your account icon and clicking “Notifications” to select your preferences.