Deer harvest variation in small and large management units in Pennsylvania.

Large game management units often lead to criticisms from hunters because they assume smaller units possess less variation in wildlife populations and more closely represent their local area. In 2003, Pennsylvania, USA, replaced smaller, socio‐political county‐based management units with larger wildlife management units (WMUs). We tested the hypothesis that smaller county units possessed less variation in antlered and antlerless white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) harvest densities among municipalities than did larger WMUs. Spatial variation, as measured by standard deviation and coefficient of variation of deer harvested per km2 was similar for antlered deer (county units 0.44 SD, CV = 0.35; WMUs 0.43 SD, CV = 0.38) and antlerless deer (county units 0.71 SD, CV = 0.44; WMUs 0.84 SD, CV = 0.45). We found no support for the assumption that larger management units resulted in greater spatial variation in deer harvest density. © 2019 The Wildlife Society. It is often assumed smaller wildlife management units possess less variation in wildlife populations than larger wildlife management units. We analyzed deer harvests in small, socio‐political units and large wildlife management units and found no evidence that smaller socio‐political units reduced deer harvest variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]