Deer population

Deer Population Facts The U.S. deer population has exploded in the last 30 years. The deer population in North America when the Europeans arrived has been estimated to have been over 50 million. With uncontrolled hunting, by 1900, they had been reduced to less than ½ million. Since being protected and reintroduced in many places, the deer population has rebounded to exceed what the land can bear. Presently there are one or more species found across the continental U.S., southern Canada, Alaska and northern Mexico, and the deer population is estimated to now be higher than ever before.

Deer Population Causes People are creating vast amounts of the perfect environment for deer with roads, power lines, agricultural activities, golf courses and the expansion of the suburbs. In addition, we have removed their natural predators in many areas and we supplement their diet with nutritious landscaping and farm crops.
The most important cause of the large deer population is that they are a protected species and a high deer population is maintained by governmental game management authorities for deer hunting.

Deer Population Increases  Fawning rates change greatly depending on the nutrition of the doe and the lack of other stressors. With good conditions, juvenile does will mate in their first fall and the mature does will produce twins or triplets. The deer population can more than double in one year. Also, since hunting is not allowed in many areas the deer live in a totally predator-free environment.

Damage Associated With Deer Population There are more than 1 million vehicle/deer collisions each year with over 100 human deaths and a billion dollars in repair costs along with billions in damage to gardens, landscaping and agriculture and permanent damage to woodlands and prairies.

Deer Population And Lyme Disease Reducing the deer population in an area may actually not reduce the risk of Lyme disease since the principal reservoir of Lyme disease is in mice, chipmunks and other small rodents.

Deer Population Solutions

• Reintroduce predators: do you want them to release a few mountain lions in your neighborhood?
• Contraception: Proven to be not a practical solution except on small islands.
• Trap and relocate: This is like trapping and relocating rats, no place wants more deer. Besides, almost all deer have died during this process when it has been attempted.
• Trap and kill or sharpshooters: Unfortunately, this is really the only plausible solution for many entrapped deer in towns and suburbs.
• Remove or limit deer’s status as a protected species.
• No solution to the serious deer population problem will be possible until local, state and federal governmental agencies assume responsibility for this situation and implement a solution to this problem.

References:

• www.wikipedia.org, www.encyclopedia.com , The Encyclopedia of Deer, Leonard Lee Rue III
• www.idausa.org/facts/deercontrol.html Advocates non-mainstream measures for deer population control.
• www.arec.umd.edu Discussion of Criteria for selecting a deer population control method.
• www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6835501 Article about deer population and damage to forests.
• mvhs.mbhs.edu/mvhsproj/deer/deer.html Deer population model.
• www.wirelessdeerfence.com Keeps the local deer population out of your yard and garden.

Deer damage |Deer Population Control | Deer problem