Kentucky Fish and Wildlife celebrate successful 2024-25 hunting season

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The deer hunting season recently ended here in Kentucky and the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife has posted their statistic for the 2024-25 hunting season.

This year was a record year for deer hunting around the state with the harvest this year reaching a total of 149,868 deer, the second highest harvest ever recorded. Hart County was among the top five counties in Kentucky for deer harvested during the 2024-25. However the good hunting season is not with out its challenges.

Fish and Wildlife experts have been monitoring a disease that was first recorded in the state in 2023 called chronic wasting disease or CWD. CWD is 100 percent fatal to deer that contract this disease. Even with Fish and Wildlife monitoring situations like this, experts say the 2025-26 hunting season should be just as successful as this year.

“We’ve seen an increase in our bulk harvest year over year since 2021 for the last four years. You know, personally I expect that to to continue. There are a lot of deer in Kentucky. There’s more deer in Kentucky than there probably ever have been. We are running right at a million animals across the state. And we’re seeing, you know, our bulk harvest is is going up and up and up” said Deer Program Biologist Tommy Apostolopoulos.

Apostolopoulos says another trend they have been monitoring is non-Kentuckians visiting Kentucky to hunt. He says while its not a problem right now they are making sure Kentucky residents come first when it comes to Kentucky deer.