I am booked for next year, just like the last 20 or so. I doubt hunting has much impact on the deer beyond making them more wary of hunters. Anticosti deer numbers are much more dependent on the winter, especially if it breaks late when the deer are at their weakest. That is what the winter kill of 2003 was about, a late ice storm in March or April and all the hunters found, myself included, were piles of fur and bones in the forests.
It was not just US hunters who were absent this year. I have been told (by someone from Quebec who did hunt) that many hunters from Quebec also opted out this year. I can't blame them. The plane ride, the truck rides, and the close quarters of the camp are an invitation to Covid or that matter the flu or any disease with an airborne spread. . The island is also no place to get sick, especially if you are out in a camp.
Looking forward to next year.
