The number of deer that have been harvested by hunters selected through the Ohio Department of Natural Resources lottery system in various Mill Creek MetroParks rose to 51 after another seven were taken last week and another nine the week before that.

But MetroParks Natural Resources manager Rachel Sobnosky warned that the number of kills that have not been confirmed is high for the last two weeks with eight not yet checked. A confirmed number will come later.

Sobnosky said Monday that she had just gotten the results Monday for last week and just got the results for the week before that on Thursday. She checks each deer report by contacting the hunter to make sure their deer came from a MetroParks facility, she has said. Many times, hunters do not know when they are on a MetroParks property, she explained.

Before the last two weeks of deer reductions, the total taken so far through hunting through the ODNR lottery was 35 over the first five weeks.

Of the deer removed the last two weeks by hunters, four came from Huntington Woods in Boardman, one came from Hitchcock Woods in Boardman, one came from Sawmill Creek north of Canfield and one came from Hawkins Marsh in Smith Township. The name of the parks for the eight not-yet-confirmed kills are not known yet.

All of the deer reductions by hunters through the ODNR lottery have been done through bow hunting so far. Of the deer removed in the last two weeks, five were does, nine were antlered deer and two were “button bucks,” meaning deer whose antlers have not yet protruded through the skin.

Meanwhile, Sobnosky reported that 12 additional deer were removed Thursday by U.S. Department of Agriculture-employed sharpshooters from Mill Creek Park between Midlothian Boulevard and U.S. route 224 in Boardman.

That type of deer reduction takes place at night, with MetroParks officials keeping the public away from those park areas with barricades at the park entrances.

Adding the 12 deer killed Thursday to the 32 that were removed over two nights in October, brings the total of deer removed with sharpshooters to 44.

The ODNR approved the MetroParks to remove 50 deer this year from Mill Creek Park through Feb. 1. Sobnosky said the sharpshooters will return to remove the additional six at some point.

Adding the 51 deer removed by hunters through the ODNR lottery system to the 44 removed by sharpshooters so far brings the total to 95 deer using both methods, unofficially, for the first seven weeks.

In March, the MetroParks said 211 deer were killed in the MetroParks through its deer reduction program last fall and winter — through the hunting program and through sharp-

shooters.