Deer Conservation
There are many people out there with a desire to save the deer population. They don’t want to see them being hunted. They also don’t want to see their natural habitat taken away because that means death by starvation for a large number of them. Yet you do have to realize that without some intervention deer are going to be overpopulation within a period of five years or less in any given location. There are some serious repercussions to that taking place.
How the deer affect the area is very important to understand though. You see some thing that deer conservation efforts involve just keeping these animals alive. However, it also needs to be balanced with the needs of the environment. When there are too many deer they will consume the grasses and other foods too close to the growth area.
This is referred to as the browsing line and when they reach it there can be serious problems. When the plants or grass reach this point then it is going to be extremely difficult for them to grow back again. That creates serious problems for the deer and other animals. They won’t be able to feed in those areas anymore and so that can result in them dying due to starvation.
More than half of all farmers in the United States report crop damages and losses annually due to deer feeding on them. It is very hard to change that fact because the deer continue to return. With too many conservation efforts in place, then there is a larger population feeding off of them.
The increase of accidents between deer and humans continues to raise with such conservation efforts in place too. When you are talking about an extremely large and bulky deer, this can result even in death for the drivers of these vehicles.
Finding a good way to balance the population of them with conservation efforts therefore proves to be very difficult. The controlled hunting of them in most areas seems to be the best way to keep the overall population under control. The number of hunting tags offered correlates with the population. When there are more deer in the wild there are more tags issues for hunters. When there are less, the number is reduced and not everyone is going to get one for a given hunting season.
That is why you will find that the real focus with most deer conservation efforts these days has to do with increasing the population and protecting the habitat for those species with very low numbers. The goal is to get them to a decent number where they will not be in jeopardy of extinction.
Overall, the issue of deer conservation efforts continues to be a very touchy subject. You have a debate going full force on both ends of the spectrum. While there is a need for some efforts to take place, the information here informs you of the dangers of doing too much for them. All of the facts need to be taken into consideration to know what is best for a specific deer population area.
It can take years of careful observing and researching to collect good data to work with. The fact that there are so many variables to consider makes it even harder. The frequent changes in population as well as environment can result in data collected only a year or two ago not being accurate anymore.
Therefore it may seem like deer conservation efforts aren’t being given enough attention. Yet once you realize how complex the issue really is you can appreciate the time that is being put into figuring out a great solution to the problem.
