Deer management is the practice and philosophy of wildlife management employed to regulate the population of deer in an area. The purpose of deer management is to regulate the population's size, reduce negative effects of population on the ecosystem, and maintain the integrity of other populations. Due to economic activity of hunting (coming from fees and licenses), deer management can be an important contributor for state and government revenue.
As a deer population grows it will begin to reach the carrying capacity of an ecosystem, causing issues for other plants and wildlife. Plant life can begin to disappear locally because of browsing. [1] These local disappearances directly affect the population of that plant species and indirectly affect other wildlife populations that also depend on the plant species for food. [1] [2] This ultimately lowers the biodiversity and changes the composition of the habitat, region, or area until the population of deer is lowered and the location is given time to recover. [1] [2] In many cases, habitats are unable to recover from deer overpopulation on their own because deer extirpate a variety of native species from the area. Once these organisms are lost from an area, they typically do not return without human intervention, meaning that forests that have reached ideal deer population levels may still lack most of their biodiversity. When deer browse an area and remove native plants, exotic and invasive species tend to take over the forest floor, further hindering a forests health and ability to recover from previous deer overpopulation. [3]
Deer populations may reach the carrying capacity, leading to an increase in human and deer interactions. [1] These interactions can result in car accidents, crop damage, property damage, Lyme disease transmission, and much more. [1] These species interaction occur both in rural and urban areas where population of deer come into contact.
Each area comes with its own set of challenges as to which management practice is the most appropriate and effective. These challenges have led to the development of alternative methods of deer management. In suburban area, sharpshooting is used. [1] Other locations may use methods like hunting, birth control, or repellents to manage the deer population.
Deer population may be negatively impacted by infectious disease in the population, such as chronic wasting disease. Chronic wasting disease is present in 25 states in the United States, three Canadian provinces, Finland, Norway, and South Korea. Chronic wasting disease was first discovered in white-tailed deer and elk in 1978. Chronic wasting disease has no cure and is 100% fatal to deer. [4] [5]
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is a bureau under the Department of the Interior that runs national programs for the public to learn about natural resources like fish and wildlife. The USFWS advise the conservation, management and advancement of the wildlife and fish in the United States as well as assists in international conservation efforts. [6] The United States Fish and Wildlife Service deals with the enforcement of federal wildlife laws, [7] protects endangered species and conservation and restoration wildlife habitat such as wetlands. [6] [8]
There are various methods that can be employed to have deer management and they can be broken down into two main types: lethal and nonlethal. These methods are used to regulate the population of deer in a specific area. If a deer population remains high for long periods, an ecosystem can suffer long term damage, forestry practices become more restricted and overall biodiversity can decline. [2] Areas with an abnormally high deer population density often have a variety of native plants extirpated (adding to the loss of biodiversity), and replaced with competing, invasive species. [3]
Deer hunting is a practice employed to regulate the population of deer. Hunting is a form of predation in which the deer are a food source or a trophy. Deer hunting is conducted in seasons that are regulated by government agency with tag limits for both bucks and does. Deer hunting can be conducted using a bow and arrow, rifle, muzzle loader or other approved weapons. [9] Hunting is only an effective method of population control when antlerless deer are targeted. The hunting of bucks has little impact on the population overtime because one buck is able to breed numerous does. Currently, hunting targeting antlerless deer is considered the most effective form of population control. [10]
If an area is being heavily affected by deer, repellents can be used to keep them away or minimize the damage. Deer repellent can produce a bad smell, burn the tongue, and taste bad. [11] The repellents can be natural or artificial but both use chemicals to deter the deer from causing damage. Repellents benefit gardens and orchids the most. [12]
Fencing forms a physical barrier, preventing the deer from entering an area. Deer fences can range from 3 ft. to 10 ft. tall. [12] There numerous types of fences used to prevent deer from causing damage, some types are electrical or high tensile. [13] The amount of time and type of management will typically determine the type of fence that is required for optimal deer damage prevention. [12]
Another way to control the population of deer is to regulate the birth rate. Decreasing the birth will limit the growth rate of the herd. Birth control vaccines have been invented that will prevent doe from having fawns for up to 3 years. [14] These vaccines can be administered by dart or by a shot. This type of management would be an alternative to hunting and most effective in urban areas where hunting may pose an issue. [14]
Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to exploit the animal's body for meat and useful animal products, for recreation/taxidermy, although it may also be done for non-exploitative reasons such as removing predators dangerous to humans or domestic animals, to eliminate pests and nuisance animals that damage crops/livestock/poultry or spread diseases, for trade/tourism, or for ecological conservation against overpopulation and invasive species.
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people."
Chronic wasting disease (CWD), sometimes called zombie deer disease, is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) affecting deer. TSEs are a family of diseases thought to be caused by misfolded proteins called prions and include similar diseases such as BSE in cattle, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans and scrapie in sheep. In the United States, CWD affects mule deer, white-tailed deer, red deer, sika deer, elk, caribou, and moose. Natural infection causing CWD affects members of the deer family. Experimental transmission of CWD to other species such as squirrel monkeys and genetically modified mice has been shown.
National Wildlife RefugeSystem (NWRS) is a system of protected areas of the United States managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), an agency within the Department of the Interior. The National Wildlife Refuge System is the system of public lands and waters set aside to conserve America's fish, wildlife, and plants. Since President Theodore Roosevelt designated Florida's Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge as the first wildlife refuge in 1903, the system has grown to over 568 national wildlife refuges and 38 wetland management districts encompassing about 856,000,000 acres (3,464,109 km2).
The white-tailed deer, also known commonly as the whitetail and the Virginia deer, is a medium-sized species of deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia, where it predominately inhabits high mountain terrains of the Andes. It has also been introduced to New Zealand, all the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean, and some countries in Europe, such as the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Romania and Serbia. In the Americas, it is the most widely distributed wild ungulate.
The sambar is a large deer native to the Indian subcontinent, South China and Southeast Asia that is listed as a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List since 2008. Populations have declined substantially due to severe hunting, local insurgency, and industrial exploitation of habitat.
The Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge is a 145,188-acre (587.55 km2) wildlife sanctuary is located west of Boynton Beach, in Palm Beach County, Florida. It is also known as Water Conservation Area 1 (WCA-1). It includes the most northern remnant of the historic Everglades wetland ecosystem.
Wildlife conservation refers to the practice of protecting wild species and their habitats in order to maintain healthy wildlife species or populations and to restore, protect or enhance natural ecosystems. Major threats to wildlife include habitat destruction, degradation, fragmentation, overexploitation, poaching, pollution, climate change, and the illegal wildlife trade. The IUCN estimates that 42,100 species of the ones assessed are at risk for extinction. Expanding to all existing species, a 2019 UN report on biodiversity put this estimate even higher at a million species. It is also being acknowledged that an increasing number of ecosystems on Earth containing endangered species are disappearing. To address these issues, there have been both national and international governmental efforts to preserve Earth's wildlife. Prominent conservation agreements include the 1973 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). There are also numerous nongovernmental organizations (NGO's) dedicated to conservation such as the Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, the Wild Animal Health Fund and Conservation International.
Wildlife management is the management process influencing interactions among and between wildlife, its habitats and people to achieve predefined impacts. It attempts to balance the needs of wildlife with the needs of people using the best available science. Wildlife management can include wildlife conservation, gamekeeping and pest control. Wildlife management draws on disciplines such as mathematics, chemistry, biology, ecology, climatology and geography to gain the best results.
Culling is the process of segregating organisms from a group according to desired or undesired characteristics. In animal breeding, it is removing or segregating animals from a breeding stock based on a specific trait. This is done to exaggerate desirable characteristics, or to remove undesirable characteristics by altering the genetic makeup of the population. For livestock and wildlife, culling often refers to killing removed animals based on their characteristics, such as their sex or species membership, or as a means of preventing infectious disease transmission.
The Mazama pocket gopher is a smooth-toothed pocket gopher restricted to the Pacific Northwest. The herbivorous species ranges from coastal Washington, through Oregon, and into north-central California. Four subspecies of the Mazama Pocket Gopher are classified as threatened under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, including T. m. pugetensis, T. m. tumuli , T. m. glacialis, and T. m. yelmensis. The Mazama Pocket Gopher is one of the smallest of 35 species in the pocket gopher family.
Animal trapping, or simply trapping or ginning, is the use of a device to remotely catch an animal. Animals may be trapped for a variety of purposes, including food, the fur trade, hunting, pest control, and wildlife management.
The elk, or wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The word "elk" originally referred to the European variety of the moose, Alces alces, but was transferred to Cervus canadensis by North American colonists. The name "wapiti", derived from a Shawnee and Cree word meaning "white rump" for the distinctive light fur in the rear region.
Deer hunting is hunting for deer for meat and sport, an activity which dates back tens of thousands of years. Venison, the name for deer meat, is a nutritious and natural food source of animal protein that can be obtained through deer hunting. There are many different types of deer around the world that are hunted for their meat. For sport, often hunters try to kill deer with the largest and most antlers to score them using inches. There are two different categories of antlers. They are typical and nontypical. They measure tine length, beam length, and beam mass by each tine. They will add all these measurements up to get a score. This score is the score without deductions. Deductions occur when the opposite tine is not the same length as it is opposite. That score is the deducted score.
Nuisance wildlife management is the selective removal of problem individuals or populations of specific species of wildlife. Other terms for the field include wildlife damage management, wildlife control, and animal damage control. Some wild animal species may get used to human presence, causing property damage or risking the transfer of diseases (zoonoses) to humans or pets. Many wildlife species coexist with humans very successfully, such as commensal rodents which have become more or less dependent on humans.
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is a government agency in the state of Maryland charged with maintaining natural resources including state parks, public lands, state forests, state waterways, wildlife, and recreation areas. Its headquarters are in Annapolis.
Overpopulation or overabundance is a phenomenon in which a species' population becomes larger than the carrying capacity of its environment. This may be caused by increased birth rates, lowered mortality rates, reduced predation or large scale migration, leading to an overabundant species and other animals in the ecosystem competing for food, space, and resources. The animals in an overpopulated area may then be forced to migrate to areas not typically inhabited, or die off without access to necessary resources.
Population control is the practice of artificially maintaining the size of any population. It simply refers to the act of limiting the size of an animal population so that it remains manageable, as opposed to the act of protecting a species from excessive rates of extinction, which is referred to as conservation biology.
Invasive species are a significant threat to many native habitats and species of the United States and a significant cost to agriculture, forestry, and recreation. The term "invasive species" can refer to introduced/naturalized species, feral species, or introduced diseases. Some introduced species, such as the dandelion, do not cause significant economic or ecologic damage and are not widely considered as invasive. Economic damages associated with invasive species' effects and control costs are estimated at $120 billion per year.
In biology, overabundant species refers to an excessive number of individuals and occurs when the normal population density has been exceeded. Increase in animal populations is influenced by a variety of factors, some of which include habitat destruction or augmentation by human activity, the introduction of invasive species and the reintroduction of threatened species to protected reserves.