Deer Overpopulation and Some Proposed Solutions
When people talk about deer, they are commonly talking about the North American Whitetail. That is because they are so prevalent in this country. They can be found in every state in the US. The only place where you will not find any whitetails is in parts of Arizona and California. In most states the whitetail is very prevalent, especially in the northeast. They are one of the most hunted animals in this area, particularly in Pennsylvania and Michigan. Despite the amount they are hunted, both in and out of season, you can not drive more than a few miles out of the towns without seeing one that was hit by a car. The deer population in this area just keeps growing. It is unclear what
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People often think that deer are the kind of animal that will try to avoid humans, staying as far away from us as possible. Although the deer are often afraid of humans, they do not always do well in the deep forest setting. The deer are not like most animals that are found in the forest; they actually do very well in a relatively rural setting. Unlike the grizzly bear which prefers to be alone, and really can not survive with humans, the deer has survived and is growing in numbers because of the human. Although the food is generally unwillingly taken, man has been feeding the deer for years. Deer love to eat farmers’ crops, vegetable gardens, and any landscaping flowers they can find. Not only has man been feeding the deer, but we have also eliminated almost all of their predators. The population of wolves and coyotes are gone in most regions. Hunting is strictly controlled by officials, and cannot really guarantee anything as far as population control. Therefore, there is no good way to control the population.
In the northeast area, the deer population is especially high. Because they are now so heavily populated, they are starting to cause more and more problems. Crop damage, which is when a farmer loses a substantial amount of crops, is growing with the deer population. This is a huge problem for the farmers because they are losing a lot of money by feeding the deer. With the rising population,
To manage this population of mule deer in Colorado a detailed Microsoft Excel spreadsheet has been used for 29 years. To ease management of this population I would not utilize trial and error based on this spreadsheet. However, it does provide ample insight into how various management strategies will play out in the landscape. Moreover, due to the dangers associated with stochasticity and constant
The White-tail deer can often be found all over southern Canada and most parts of the United States. Their range extends throughout Central America to Bolivia. This sophisticated animal's habitat range is usually less than a square mile. Some of the White-tail deer's habitats include grasslands, prairies and plains, mountains, and forests. These deer prefer a more sheltered habitat; they often reside in forests, including hardwoods, coniferous, and tropical forests. However they may reside in forests such as tropical forests for a more sheltered habitat. The White-tale deer can adapt to their many habitats and they have incredibly strong muscles in their leg that allow them to run up to speeds such as 30 miles per hour! This is quite an advantage when it comes to running from predators. The White-tail deer has quite simple needs for a healthy life. Shelter from harmful weather or predators, food and water, and the space to find food and water, and to attract a mate.
This alternative would reach the goals through the length of the plan. The reduction in deer population would not be rapid and regeneration would be seen mostly in the exclusions until the population had diminished and the plan cost is over $9.5 million. The preferred alternative, alternative C was comprised of the continuation of alternative A with the use of sharpshooting and the subduing and euthanization of deer to rapidly reduce the population to the goal range in three years. Through this alternative the goals would be meet in a relatively short time frame at a cost between $738,600 and $941,100. The final alternative, alternative D also continued alternative A with the combination of sharpshooting, euthanization, and reproduction control. Alternative D would meet the goals of the plan in a similar time frame as alternative C with a cost of between $1.4 and $1.6 million.
Over just a century ago the whitetail deer population became nearly extinct, mostly due to a rapid expansion in the railroad system. At this same time market hunting, weak enforcement of game laws, and habitat loss contributed to the dangerously low deer populations in the late 1800’s. In states like Kansas and Indiana deer were completely extinct, being endangered in many others. With the whitetail deer population doubling every two years there is an estimated thirty million deer in the United States (Rooney, 2012). Although with these over-abundant populations comes the destruction of natural resources along with diseases and other factors that can tremendously affect the population. While there are many factors that play an active role in the declination of Whitetail deer populations, chronic wasting disease is just one of them.
This will save tons of money by making it so people don’t have to pay for repairs that hitting a deer cause or in some cases buying a whole new car. This will also save the lives of many deer. There have been many cases where people have been driving down the road and hit a mother deer killing it and leaving it’s young fawn to now fend for itself. A
The deer and big horn sheep need to be monitored for the same reasons as the elk and bison. Their population needs to be monitored so they do not get overpopulated or underpopulated. The deer are the same as the elk for monitoring the population so that way the game, fish, and parks department can determine what effect the upcoming hunting season will have on the deer population, and then they can change the hunting regulations if need
There have been many studies by deer ranches that raise deer for hunting purposes as well as studies by parks and wildlife on the breeding of deer. The pros and cons of a deer living in the wild as opposed to a deer living on several acres of land surrounded by an eight foot fence. There is some research that suggest there are ways of increasing your deer herd while improving the quality of deer that are being produced. Because many rancher have turned to raising deer when the cattle market went down the amount of deer leases has increased. With the increase in ranches raising deer there has also been an increase of people trying to find ways to produce the perfect buck to breed to the perfect doe. In the wild there is also research to
Another research that was done by Conover (2001) showed that, before the arrival of the European colonies in North America, the density of white-tailed deer was estimated to be very high. The population of the deer has increased to unmanageable number as the predators cannot feed on them fully. The case is not the same to public areas that are open for hunting. The population of the deer in those areas has been maintained to a very low level.
Do deer populations have a negative effects on ecological systems? In several scientific articles this is the question being asked. Dose deer overabundance modify plant diversity, vegetation decomposition and structure, soil characteristics, growth and survival? Do they have cascading effects on other species such as insects and other mammals? These questions need to be asked so, projects can be implanted to help maintain deer population and preserve the ecological systems.
In Arizona, because of the lesser population of animals, one may only harvest one antlered deer, one elk, and two javelina per person per year. Additionally, the hunter must be drawn in a “lottery-style process for allocating the limited number of Arizona big game and other limited species hunt permit-tags to applicants” (AZ Game & Fish). Not every applicant who applies for a tag gets drawn, this is part of the system of controlling the population of wildlife to ensure no animal is over hunted. However, in other states, there might be other regulations based on the population of the animal. For example, in Kentucky, one may be able to harvest four deer per year including one antlered deer (Kentucky Game and Fish).
During the 2015-2016 deer season, 274,447 deer were legally harvested, this was a 7% increase from the 2014-2015 season, but a 3% decrease from the 10 year average, but lately, the population has been dropping, this is due to severe disease outbreaks, a changes in habitat availability. Deer population however has been slowly decreasing
explores Indians actually based their living areas on fertile grassy valleys where deer feed on frequently. “Since the Indians relied heavily on venison and deer hides…” and “ More than a thousand deer are killed annually in the neighbor of cayuga.” (Serveringhuas , C. W. and C. P. Brown . 1956) wrote by a Jesuit missionary Peter Reaffix in 1670. The fact that these certain tribes actually precisely based their entire community as to where they would have the best access to where deer were frequently it’s hard to deny the fact that deer actually played a important role in society, in a nutrient and day to day factor.
A number of them are descendants of the initial releases that have widened their range. On the other hand, some have had a reduced distribution. Numerous areas have seen recent populations established by deer that have escaped from modern deer farms or from secret releases. Irrespective of where they originated, the population of deer in the 21st century in Australia is higher than ever and a growing number of hunters are appreciating more every day.
Briefing Note for The Minister: Report on the issues caused by the growing population of Deer within the UK
Obesity is a problem in many Americans today, but living a subsistence lifestyle can change that. Jackson Landers, author of the book Hunting Deer for Food, explains that deer meat is healthier than cow meat because it has less fat, and all the fat it has is just below the skin, not throughout the meat. Plus, almost all of the fat is removed during the butchering process (Landers 7). All the fat on the deer is closest to the skin and is not throughout the meat like meat from cattle. This makes