Deer in our Urban Jungles

We are being smothered by the infestation of deer in our country. Because deer have very high reproductive potential, and they have few natural predators, deer herds can double in size over one year. This quick and severe change can cause a giant drain on the habitat in which the deer live, causing lack of food for all the animals in their environment. Deer looking for food can cause devastation to crops and to gardens, they are also a hazard

A second solution would be to allow residential hunters two antlered tags a year, and eight antlerless tags each year. Non-residential hunters would be allowed two antlered tags and only seven antlerless tags each year. Not only would this solution help to crack down on deer overpopulation, it would also earn more money for the Fish and Game Department. This money could be used to finance wild life reserves for the endangered and weak animals of Kansas, or to set up habitats for the children of our state to learn about our native animals.

One solution to overpopulation would be to extend the deer season. Adding one day to the beginning of each season and one day to the end of each season would result in more time for the hunters to fill their tags. The hunters would be able to be more selective in their prey, making sure they get bigger antlered deer and can fill the antlerless tags appropriately. I’m not sure that the hunters would want to be outside too long in the dead of winter though. This change would help with the overpopulation greatly. The larger the buck, the more mates he is likely to have. By shooting down larger bucks every year, you will be leaving the females that he usually mates with without a strong, large mate for the next year. This will produce smaller bucks each year, and possibly even cut down on the population.

Another method of decreasing the deer population would be to control contraception and sterilization of the deer. These methods still have yet to be proven effective at reducing the population. The contraceptive drugs are still going through testing and the surgery required to sterilize the animals is risky and traumatic to the wild deer. If proven cost effective and as a beneficial way to reduce population, this would be a good option to consider. But given

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