Population Explosion

Now that we US citizens are 300 million in number and growing, we can reasonably look forward to more frequent interactions with our wildlife neighbors.

Pennsylvania tops the list of car accidents caused by unfortunate interactions with deer, especially during their mating seasons in late fall. A deer in Des Moines wandered into the local
Target – the store, that is – and ran around the aisles for twenty minutes before heading out. And in Michigan, a happy ending to the baby buck who went trick-or-treating.

Viruses spreading through the Whitetail Population

Woe is the Whitetail! Not only is hunting season just around the corner, but early fall tends to bring viral outbreaks to herds throughout the United States.

Epizootic Hemmorhagic Disease (EHD) crops up after a drought and tends to stay until the first good frost kills the gnats that spread it. Sheep, cattle and elk are susceptible to the virus, though humans are not (phew).

So far wildlife officials in Michigan, Indiana, Montana, Ohio, West Virginia and Iowa are asking residents to please report dead deer sightings, especially those found near water.

[Aside: Did everyone know there are over 600 deer farms in Michigan? We thought it was a British thing.]

Deer herds are also contending with Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), which is thought to spread through saliva. This year, researchers in Wisconsin are trying to determine if highways and water ways can act as natural barriers to the spread of disease. As with EHD, the risk of animal-to-human transmission is low, but no one should eat sickly animals.

Animal Control

While officials aim to address the overgrazing problem in Indiana’s Dunes State Park through another scheduled deer cull, residents of Ohio have a weeks to participate in the the development of a similar deer management plan for Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

In New Jersey, some tout deer hunting as the only option to control an increasing number of suburban auto accidents. Additional concerns include the spread of lyme disease, destruction of landscaping and displacement of native plants and birds. Facing similar wildlife management problems, cities in Illinois and Iowa have launched urban bow-hunting seasons with mixed results and responses to this point. And last week, the Pennsylvania Game Commission approved the use of bait for deer hunting on private property.

Here in New York, it’s not the deer, but the Squirrels who wreak havoc in our most urban areas.

Open Season

It looks like deer are on everyone’s minds lately. Open Season, SONY’s latest animation-adventure featuring the voices of Ashton Kutcher and Martin Lawrence opened at number one in the box office this weekend.

Meanwhile, residents of Bucks County Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Game Commission are kicking around the idea of legalizing the use of bait in deer hunting in light of problems caused by a growing deer population.

In Iowa, a paradox of sorts – the DesMoines Register reports that hunters are finding fewer deer in Iowa, while the city of Davenport is hosting its first urban deer hunt.

And our urban-dwelling British friends are dealing with a population explosion of deer – pool swimming, banana eating, three-legged deer, no less. Says a rescue official: “They are very scattish animals and don’t really think. They do everything by instinct and just go where the food is.”