As human populations continue to increase and, by necessity, encroach into neighboring woodlands, white-tailed deer and other wildlife are suddenly becoming urban animals. While some wildlife species cannot cope with environmental changes, deer have proven to be amazingly adaptable creatures and have learned to live and thrive alongside human development. In fact, there are more deer today than when our forefathers first set foot upon the continent. This, naturally, leads to a number of problems as humans and deer inevitably clash over available living space.
“The root of all deer/human problems existing in urban settings is overpopulation of local, isolated deer herds,” said wildlife biologist Chas Moore. “This can be detrimental to both deer and humans.”
With most cities not allowing the use of firearms inside the city limits, hunting as a means of deer-herd-population control has largely been taken out of the equation. Thus, with no predators except an occasional neighborhood dog and nowhere else to go, deer populations explode.
“Deer/vehicle accidents are on the rise in urban areas each year, which leads to millions of dollars in damage,” Moore said. “Once a local herd has eaten most of the forage from the surrounding woodlands in early winter, practically all that remains is along the roadsides. This inevitably leads to potentially disastrous consequences. Other green spaces deer seek out for browsing are golf courses, city parks, and urban or suburban yards. In hard times, deer will browse on most anything that is green and can destroy ornamental shrubbery, flowerbeds, and vegetable gardens. Bucks also will rub their antlers on whatever woody saplings are available, which often ends up killing the plants.”
According to Moore, some property owners have learned to deter deer from their yards by a number of means with mixed results.
“A perimeter fence is effective, but can be quite costly because the fence needs to be at least eight feet tall to keep deer from jumping over it. Many times a backyard dog will deter deer. Hanging soap, dryer sheets, and hair from branches will keep deer out for awhile, at least until they get used to these items being around. Certain plants, like onions, garlic, chives, mint, catnip, lavender, sage, and thyme can be planted to temporarily keep deer from feeding in flowerbeds and vegetable gardens.”
Many nature lovers and wildlife enthusiasts enjoy watching deer and try to attract them to their yards by putting up feeders. Not only is this costly, but more times than not these same people eventually grow weary of the deer after the shrubbery, flowers, and ornamental plants in the yard have been eaten or destroyed. Feeding deer in many instances also leads them toward or across highways. This increases the likelihood of deer/vehicle collisions, which makes for a dangerous situation in the community. In addition, most people provide corn as food, which is a poor substitute for natural deer forage.
“Anytime deer are feeding in one specific location, such as at a feeder,” Moore explained, “disease potentially can be spread to all the deer using the feeder. In many situations, it is probably best to let deer be as wild as possible in the city and just enjoy seeing one from time to time.”
As long as people continue to spread to the countryside, they will have to learn to live with urban deer. Moore points out that, in some instances, there is a hunting variable that can prove useful in urban deer management and provide a rather unique sporting opportunity as well.
“Some towns allow the use of archery equipment within city limits,” he said. “If this is the case where you live, some of the best deer hunting can be found right in your own ‘back yard.’ If you do your homework and everything checks out, you can harvest plenty of venison for the table and freezer and also provide the community a valuable service by reducing the ever-increasing deer population. It also aids the deer herd by ensuring that more food will be available, thus promoting healthier individual animals. Just make sure you’ve obtained landowner permission and checked with local regulatory agencies to see that hunting is permissible.”
In timely and practical fashion, William Hovey Smith’s latest book addresses the practicality of urban and suburban deer hunting. In Backyard Deer Hunting: Converting Deer to Dinner for Pennies per Pound, Sandersville’s Smith takes the hunter and wild-game cook through all the steps necessary to finding deer and other game, and putting it on the dinner table as inexpensively as possible. In the book (published by AuthorHouse, 2009), Smith, an avid and expert hunter, guides readers through the complete hunting process, from reasons why people should hunt to the fine dining that can result for even the most inexperienced cooks.
Released in July to favorable reviews, Backyard Deer Hunting includes sections on locating deer close to home, becoming licensed to hunt, choosing hunting tools for multiple seasons, retrieving the animals, cleaning, wrapping, freezing, and, finally, 50 recipes for preparing tasty meals from deer and other game. The book is based on Smith’s personal experiences from a time when he “faced large financial obligations, had little money to meet them, and had a family to feed.” The 250-page soft-cover volume, containing 100 illustrations, is available for purchase in bookstores and online at www.authorhouse.com, www.amazon.com, and www.hoveysmith.com.