The Risks and Benefits of Living with Deer in Your Neighborhood

I've lived in my town for over fifty years and have seen formerly open fields and forests become smaller with each housing development and plot of land sold to homeowners. As a child, I never saw a deer in our neighborhood but now, years later, they have become a common sight - as have foxes and coyotes, also once rarely seen in our area.

I once witnessed a doe giving birth in my mother's backyard and bucks, does and fawns eat regularly from the fruit trees in our yard or nibble at the plants in my garden. One son was awe-struck by the sight of a young fawn,unmoving, in the middle of a wooded trail in a nearby forest, waiting for its mother to return.

While all of this might sound lovely - and it is - I recently wrote an article called How to Debone a Deer, (the article didn't appear on Gather).

You might wonder why a deer lover would write such an article and, indeed,the reactions to this article varied (mostly positive) but I felt that it was ethical to give deer meat to needy families since the deer were going to be killed, anyway. I had a personal take on this, having grandparents and parents who'd had to hunt to survive the Great Depression.

Believe it or not, I love animals.

Yes, I'm an animal lover - which is why I urge all readers of this article to think carefully about the potential effects of home development on an area, especially the wildlife there. I believe strongly that deer, badgers, coyotes and other wildlife need safe areas to live rather than being pushed into co-existing with people in suburban or rural areas.

Tne major risk of living with deer has been the fact that both deer and humans are more likely to be seriously injured as a result.Why? Because when faced with the glare of car headlights, deer often freeze, not moving out of the way of the car. If the deer has just stepped in front of a moving car, there isn't always time for a driver to stop. When a car hits a deer, not only can the animal be seriously injured or killed but so can the automobile driver. I've had several near misses and have learned to be alert to the possibility of a deer stepping out into the road.

In contrast, when I was a child we never saw deer along the streets of our heavily wooded neighborhood. Given a choice, the deer stayed away from people. But now they are being forced into smaller space, with food supplies dwindling. As a result, when the deer population reaches a certain density, they start to starve or become desperate, forcing them to co-exist with people, often in plain sight.

Another risk? We hear random shots in the woods near our house. I suspect there are unauthorized hunters around who are looking for some free venison and I feel very ambivalent about this. They could be automatically thinning the herds, making life a little easier for the surviving deer.

But the hunters also put my family at risk because a hunter who is too eager to find a deer might mistake a child wearing a brown coat for a young deer. This is why people in Michigan and other areas often put orange letters or blankets on their cows during hunting season and why people take other precautions to avoid being shot.

Then there is the possibility of deer ticks, which generally help spread Lyme disease in my area of the country. Information can be found about that here:

www.purdueexponent.org/2000/07/28/features/

We've known neighbors who have gotten Lyme disease and have been told the risk was higher because of deer populations bringing in more ticks. You can find information on the steps you might want to take if you have deer in your area, ones that are likely to carry Lyme disease or other conditions, by consulting the site above.

Finally, there is the fact that a certain percentage of people try to tame or hand feed deers. While it might be fine to put out a salt licki n a remote area of the woods, areas that don't necessarily encourage deer to get close to homes or streets, other people mistakenly think that "taming" deer would be a desirable thing to do, forgetting that this could cause more harm for the animal - and human - than benefits. Is it really desirable to encourage wild animals to become too tame, to have them eating from trees or tearing up garden plants in broad daylight, let alone stepping into busy roadways? I don't think so.

So that's my take.

Yes, I'm always stunned by the sight of a graceful deer, neck outstretched to reach for an apple on the tree in our side yard. These creatures are admittedly beautiful. But there is a big difference between the cartoon version of Bambi and the very real deer that live near us. The whole situation is plenty more complicated thanit might appear.