North Dakota's deer gun lottery continues to set records, an indication the state still has plenty of deer.

Efforts to bring down herd numbers to more manageable sizes are paying off in some areas, however, wildlife officials say.

This year's first license lottery application process - for the deer gun, muzzleloader, youth and landowner classes - drew 94,000 applicants, matching the 2007 record, said Randy Kreil, the state Game and Fish Department's wildlife division chief.

Fifty-nine percent of the applications came in online, another record, said Carrie Whitney, the agency's licensing supervisor.

The firsts came on top of yet another record announced earlier - 149,400 deer licenses made available in North Dakota this year.

The Game and Fish Department has been working in recent years to reduce deer numbers in the state, after a series of mild winters that boosted the population. Last year, hunters killed more than 100,000 of the animals in North Dakota for a second straight year.

The herd reduction effort is starting to have results.

"There are parts of the state where deer populations have been significantly reduced as a result of aggressive doe harvest," Kreil said. "We've accomplished our objective of reducing deer numbers to our management goal (in those areas), and that's what we hope to do in other parts of the state."

Fewer licenses are available in the southeast this year, and licenses are being kept stable in the northwest, Kreil said. The number of available licenses is increasing in southwestern, central and northeastern North Dakota.

A special seven-day doe season also is planned in the northeast this fall for the first time, to try to reduce the deer numbers in that region. Kreil said the presence of bovine tuberculosis in northwestern Minnesota is one reason, since deer can spread the disease.

Another reason, he said, is that last year some of the deer licenses available in the region went unused.

"That tells us … we had to do something different," Kreil said.

Successful applicants in the first North Dakota deer gun lottery should get their license in the mail by mid-July. Nearly 63,000 antlerless deer gun licenses are still available. Kreil said no buck licenses remain for any parts of the state.

A second lottery drawing will be held this month for hunters who were unsuccessful in the first lottery. A third lottery will be held later for hunters who have not yet applied for a 2008 deer gun license and for those seeking additional licenses.

The regular deer gun season begins at noon Nov. 7 and continues through Nov. 23.