Quote:
Originally Posted by wodin
You have to be kidding!
We're talking about rural communities here, nothing but farms for miles, with herds of deer happily munching the corn crops. It's not the encroachment of habitat, it's the inability (unwillingness) to properly manage the herds.
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I used to live in Pennsylvania, and deer hunting was a major thing there. The PA state department of agriculture published (and still does, I imagine) a magazine called Pennsylvania Game News, aimed at the hunters and fishermen who lived in or traveled to the state to practice their hobby. Deer hunting was a substantial portion of the content.
The underlying problem is that we've largely killed off the deer's natural predators, and the population is limited solely by the available food supply. No surprise that the deer wander farther afield looking for food. It's exacerbated in areas where people dislike the practice of hunting and make it difficult for humans to be the predators. Some friends of mine live in suburban NJ, and a deer trial runs past their house. The last time I was there for a party I watched a family of deer amble out of the woods, across the road, and through the lawn of a house across the street to get to their intended destination. It's a heavily built-up enough area that I can't imagine hunting being permitted
in the township, so the deer have no concerns about wandering through (save becoming road kill on a highway.)
"Managing the herds" means keeping the population down by killing the excess. If you're not willing to do that, the consequences are inevitable.
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Dennis