Ryan Pageau- Deer population control

Somehow last class we started talking about the overpopulation of deer, so I decided to find some articles and look at some statistics. The facts I found are from the Suburban Whitetail Management of Northern Virginia, and urban area most students are familiar with. Some of the facts I found about deer and their effects on the environment are actually kind of astonishing; ill share some with you all.

Once deer have established their “domain,” research shows that deer are known to starve themselves rather than leave their own domain (This may leave sick deer around the area). Jack stated in the class that low or no predation can increase the population of deer and he in fact was very correct. Just TWO deer without predation can produce a herd of up to 35 deer within 7 years, and under optimal conditions without hunting or predators, deer populations can double in size annually.

Here are some of the major problems with overpopulation of deer. Farmers indicated in a survey that more than 56% of them had suffered crop damage with whitetail deer being their prime culprit. Pennsylvania farmers suffer an estimated $30 MILLION dollars in crop damage annually; Wisconsin claimed $37 million annually. In 1995 a study was done that revealed with conservative estimates, placed deer-car collisions in the U.S. at over 500,000 per year, with vehicle damage in the $100,000’s of thousands.

I think everyone gets the point, the statistics are never ending. I didn’t know before reading this article that deer actually affected people in the financial aspect as well as the physical well-being aspect as drastically as it has proven to be. I am not a supporter of killing for sport, but if hunters are shooting and really eating these animals, I am all for it. In fact, I think that in order to prevent further injury and destruction of crops, the bag count per year should be increased.