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The Tremendous Increase in Deer Populations

Many states are experiencing a tremendous increase in the population of deer. A great number of people don’t realize what would happen if deer hunting was stopped, despite this increase, and many don’t fully grasp how large the population increase is.

People who are totally against deer hunting often don’t understand the point that the land can only support a certain number of deer. If that number is exceeded, the entire herd suffers from malnutrition. Starvation is one of nature’s ways of taking care of the excess number of deer.

Starvation is a long, agonizing way to die. When there are too many deer for a section of land to support, it also affects every member of the herd. Every mouthful of food that is consumed by one deer means one less mouthful for any other deer in the herd. By the time the weakest members of the herd, typically the fawns, die of starvation, the strongest members of the herd have become weak.

If the conditions are extreme, entire herds can be wiped out by starvation. This most often happens during the winter, especially when the winter has been especially cold and snowy as it has been in the northeastern US during the 2017-2018 winter. This is called “winter-kill” and it refers to the number of animals that perish during the winter. Most of these animals die of starvation and if the deer numbers are lower so there is more food to go around, the winter-kill numbers are substantially lower.

The problem is that deer can overpopulate quickly. It isn’t uncommon for a two-year-old doe to have twins or triplets. A single buck deer can also breed with many does and this usually happens.

As an example, in 2014, our local herd of about 30 deer exploded in growth. Of the 30 deer, 25 were does. Nearly all of these does gave birth to triplets. I’ve never seen so many does with triplets, but the local population suddenly jumped from 30 deer to over 80. That winter was harsh and the winter-kill was huge.

It becomes more telling when actual numbers, state-wide, are used. According to the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, in 2016, there were more than 363,000 mule deer and just under 221,000 white-tail deer in Montana, for a total of well over a half-million. That was a state-wide increase over the period of a decade of roughly 40,000 deer.

Montana is a major deer-hunting state. Residents and visitors routinely harvest between 3,000 and 5,000 deer every year in Montana. In addition, several hundred deer are killed every year in car impacts. Many of the years in the past decade have also seen abnormally low winter temperatures and extremely high snowfall amounts. In fact, during the winter of 2016-2017, virtually the entire state broke records for snowfall amounts. There is little doubt that the winter-kill was very high during the period from 2006 and 2016.

Despite all of this, the deer population in Montana grew by about 4,000 deer per year. It doesn’t take a great deal of thought to realize that the land simply can’t support population increases of that magnitude. Already, there are nearly as many deer as people in Montana.

Now, imagine what would happen if deer hunting stopped. There is a strong possibility that the increase of deer per year would be double what it is.

Nature would no doubt take care of the excess through starvation and disease, but that isn’t a great way to stabilize the population of deer and it isn’t a long-term correction since the deer still populate quickly. Indeed, one of the only feasible ways to deal with the tremendous growth in the deer population would be to increase the harvest numbers.

So far, this option hasn’t been explored or talked about by fish and game officials, to my knowledge. However, by actually looking at the numbers, it is clear that there is a big problem that needs to be dealt with.

When people hear that the deer population is growing, they normally don’t realize just how much of an understatement that is, until they look at the numbers.

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What do you think?

10 Points

Written by Rex Trulove

19 Comments

  1. Really interesting article about deers and the problem related to the growth in population everywhere. We have a similar problem in Brazil with capybaras, but they are so lovely! We can find lots of capybara families along the river the crosses the city of Petrópolis and no one bothers them.

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  2. I know and understand that an increase in the deer population and any wildlife population for that matter is going to be eventually hard on the animals themselves but hunting them down is, in my view, not an answer to the problem unless it is well controlled and respected which from what I know, it is not at all times. It is too bad for all the wildlife that we are encroaching on all their territories and I feel for them all. There have been a fair amount of deer accidents in the Ottawa Valley which have increased over the past 4-5 years because of the increasingly harsh winters we have had further north. This pushes the deer and other wildlife, such as bear, moose etc. to move further south where the human population is gathered along with their cars, rigs, tractors etc. and of course their guns. I do not know what is the right solution though: hunting or gathering them up in enclosures or what? We all have to eventually figure out a good solution for both sides whether it be for wildlife or humans alike.

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    • Most deer hunting, at least in the Northwest, is tightly regulated. Yes, there are some poachers, but when they get caught, and they generally do get caught, they get nailed big time. The average that a person gets for killing a deer illegally is a fine of from $1,000 to $5,000, confiscation of the rifle used and any other gun the person has in their possession, confiscation of any vehicle used to transport the deer, and loss of hunting privileges for a minimum of 5 years.

      I’ve been out in the woods with groups attempting to help starving deer herds. Usually, by the time we get there, its too late and the most humane thing that can be done is to put all the deer down. Usually, by that time the deer have been starving over the course of a couple of months, getting gradually weaker by the day. The fawns have already perished and the deer that are left are in such pain that they actually cry out in agony (deer DO make noises…they are rather like goats). Feeding them when they are that bad is even crueler because their bodies have shut down. Naturally, killing the 30-40 deer in a herd in those circumstances isn’t ideal, but it is humane as they’ve already suffered greatly for a couple of months.

      The really sad part is in knowing that if only 3 or 4 deer had been taken through hunting a couple of months earlier, the entire herd, including the fawns, probably would have survived. Most of the time when a deer gets shot, death is very quick. The death doesn’t linger for two months.When I hunt, I go for a head or neck shot. It is doubtful that the deer even hears the bang. I also use the deer meat rather than letting it rot. Even getting hit by a car is usually more of a lingering death than getting shot. Most states have laws against putting a deer out of their misery if it is still alive after a car impact. A person has to wait for the 20 minutes to an hour for law enforcement to get there so THEY can put the deer down.

      Putting them in enclosures has been tried and has failed. For one thing, it is nearly impossible to round up a half-million deer from an area of 94 million acres. Even if that was possible, it also very negatively would impact their natural predators.

      Right here, deer are populating at twice the rate that they are harvested. This is an issue that the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks have been studying for several decades. Right now, the most viable option is deer hunting and most wildlife biologists have concluded that more does should be taken, rather than having hunts for bucks only. Removing a couple of bucks from a herd only helps in the short-term because the bucks that are left will still breed with the available does, so the following year the issue comes right back up.

      More recently, CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease, which is the deer equivalent of ‘Mad Cow Disease’) has become a much greater issue, too. Again, that is nature taking care of the extra population, but CWD is even worse than starving. If hunting pressure isn’t increased, nature *will* take care of the problem, primarily through starvation and CWD. CWD is incurable and 100% contagious. It can also be passed to any member of the deer family, including elk, moose, and caribou. (I should write about CWD.)

      At any rate, most of the people I’ve heard who have been against the regulated deer hunting we have here have never had the dubious opportunity to see an entire deer herd in the final stages of starvation. Out of sight, out of mind. I suspect that the sight would change some minds.

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  3. We planted bitter brush on many acres hoping to help things out. The Mule Deer Foundation has many projects. It’s odd, we don’t have any whitetail here. I have to go home to see them.

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    • In a way, it isn’t surprising. White-tails are most numerous east of the continental divide and mulies are the most numerous west of the divide. Montana has a lot of both because of the mountains. The two can interbreed, too.

  4. I’ve never really thought about this. I’m not on our land enough these days to see the deer that used to visit us. Chances are they come when I’m not there to see them. I have seem some rather unhealthy looking deer around town when I’m out walking. We don’t have snow here, and there is probably a lot more for deer to eat here in the winter.

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    • There might be a greater quantity of food, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is quality forage. Still, even if it was lush, the land can still only support so many deer. The biggest problem with snow is that it makes it more difficult for the deer to get to the food and they have to expend more energy to do it.

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