Anticosti: a magical island to hunt
The term'' myth'' is often used to refer to a mistaken belief at first, but can refer to concrete elements symbolically expressed and shared by a significant number of people. This is how Wikipedia describes the word ''myth.''
The Société des établissement de plein air (SEPAQ), is an entity of the Government of Quebec, which manages parks and reserves. It thus manages hunting on Anticosti Island.
They sell this island as an outstanding destination and says on its website that the island is recognized as an exceptional area for hunting deer.
Many professional photographers sites on the Internet are promoting the island. You will see deer with large racks collected by various hunters in recent years.
Sold for its large racks
Sold on the possibility to harvest a large rack, the fact remains that visiting or hunting on Anticosti island is a unique experience.
A statistical study of deer, on the website of the Ministère des ressources naturelles et de la faune however, shows that Anticosti Island is not the exceptional territory it used to be.
Harvesting a large antlered buck
'' If we compare the odds of harvesting a large antlered buck according to the official statistics, they are not very different from those of mainland Québec.
If you exclude from the mainland statistics, the thousands of permits issued for several years, to harvest doe to farmers, to ZEC (Zone d'Exploitation Contrôlées) and to outfitters, the odds of harvesting a buck are slightly better on the mainland.
From the statistics issued by the Ministère des Ressources Naturelles et de la Faune (MRNF), we learned that in 2010, hunters have harvested 5,565 bucks on a total of 9,265 deer on Anticosti island. It accounts for 60.1% of the total deer harvested.
On the mainland Québec hunters have harvested 24,161 bucks on a total of 43,205 deer, an average of 55.9%. These figures are obtained by subtracting the zone 20 area(Anticosti island) from the grand total.
If you remove the estimated 6000 doe permits harvested, the percentage rises to 64.9%.
Odds are better on the mainland
So according to the 2010 statistics, the odds of harvesting a'' buck'' on Anticosti island was 60.1% and on the mainland at 64.9%.
I therefore found that your chances of harvesting a buck on the mainland would be better than on Anticosti island.
Anticosti is a ''myth''
Anticosti Island offers more than 160,000 deer to hunters over its vast territory of 7980 square kilometers, and surely more than 80,000 mature bucks: more than 10 bucks/square kilometer or 26 bucks/square mile.
The hunt on Anticosti Island is offered, both by the SEPAQ and by outfitters, with an experienced guide.
Hunters can hunt in groups , which means that if they have signed the required form, the hunter who have already harvested their deer can kill one, two, three or even four additional deer, for hunters who did not had a chance to complete their hunts.
Despite all these additionnal benefits, Anticosti hunters vs mainland Québec, the average hunt is only 1.85 deer per hunter.
An average of 1.11 buck / hunter
But if you divide the total of 9,265 deer harvested in 2010 by an average of 1.85 deer / hunter, we therefore had about 5,000 hunters on Anticosti island.
Given that the number of males harvested was only 5565. We can say that the'' average'' buck harvest was only 1.11 deer/ hunter, in a controlled environment with an average of 10 bucks/km2 (26/m2)
Gentlemen hunters: Anticosti is a myth .
