Wildlife Management?

White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

He stands beside the highway, uncomprehending, as predators flash past at unbelievable speeds. The predators’ eyes are huge and brilliant, shining into the crepuscular darkness, confusing him. 50, 60, 70 miles an hour—a meaningless datum. He has evolved over ten thousand years or more to run and leap, to avoid or escape known predators—four-legged creatures with long, snapping jaws and bursts of speed to match his own. This two-eyed, bulky creature with no legs or tail has no scent to trigger his innate response to flee. He leaps, knowing he has plenty of time to cross before the thing arrives. He is wrong. His magnificent leap positions him just in time and place to connect with the grill between the two eyes. He registers nothing. His vibrant, urgent life is snuffed out. His beautiful, leaping form is reduced to carrion.

He is, or was, a white-tailed deer, boldly out in the dusk, hoping to rut, to mate, to pass on his innate knowledge. Now, he is a dent in the hood of the car, a broken radiator, a meal for the buzzards.

 We have seen lots of deer here at Owl Acres. In January, their cloven hoofprints are everywhere in the snow. In summer, the path they make through the woods is easy to follow, and as the corn grows taller in the surrounding fields, they use it for food and for cover. Now that the corn is harvested, they have lost their shelter and stroll boldly across the yard at dusk, intent on their own imperatives—securing territory; finding mates to breed the next generation of fawns. The fawns will be born in the spring or early summer, and will grow, under the careful eye of their mothers. They’ll reach breeding age by next fall and will add to the herd that lives in the woods and along the river nearby.

White-tailed deer can weigh up to 300 pounds although the average is closer to 200 pounds. They stand on long, slender legs perfect for bounding and leaping through woods and fields, ditches and roadsides. They can run 35 miles an hour, and jump over an eight-foot fence with ease. The two toes of their cloven hooves help them maintain balance and footing on rough terrain.

Their fur is reddish-brown in summer and more gray-brown in winter with white on the throat, around the eyes and nose, on the belly, and on the underside of the short tail. When they run, they raise that tail and wave it side to side so the white underside shows like a flag. Fawns can readily follow their mothers through the woods, and other deer can recognize the flag as a warning of imminent danger.

Like cows, deer have four stomachs. This allows them to eat and digest woody and fibrous plants. This would include the little fruit trees I planted some years ago. It would also include garden vegetables, roses and other flowers, and many other plants that I might like to use to landscape.

So why are there so many deer standing in the ditches, waiting to leap across the road in front of oncoming traffic?

This is a good example of how humans have altered the natural balance of things. When Iowa was first settled, deer, elk and bison thrived on its prairies. Populations were kept in check by the deer’s major predators—wolves and mountain lions. When deer were plentiful, the wolves and mountain lions, and even the smaller predators–coyotes and bobcats–thrived. When especially hard winters or over-population of the predators caused the deer population to go below abundancy levels, wolves and mountain lions went hungry, decreased, and allowed the deer to regain their numbers. These multiyear cycles kept the deer population at sustainable levels.

Enter white settlers, bringing cattle, sheep, goats, hogs—all tasty meals for wolves and mountain lions. Getting rid of the predators saved the domesticated livestock, and bounties on pelts added extra incentive. A concerted effort by the settlers, aided by the long rifles of the day, exterminated the wolves. At the same time, deer hides and deer meat were attractive and salable commodities. In the 1830s, deer hides sold for 50 cents apiece, and venison sold for 2 cents per pound—prices that made them worth hunting. The Iowa Legislature, recognizing the potential for over-hunting the deer population, established closed seasons starting in 1856 which ran from February 1 to July 15. The closed season was broadened to January 1 to September 15 in 1872, and by 1898 it encompassed the entire year, making deer hunting illegal in Iowa. It was too late, though. The wild deer population was nearly gone.

Apparently, however, some farmers were attempting to raise white-tailed deer as domestic livestock. In 1894 35 deer escaped from the farm of William Cuppy of Avoca. With no natural predators and no hunting allowed, they started repopulating their ecological niche in western Iowa. In 1920, some 60 deer escaped from the Singmaster farm in Washington County. The herd quickly burgeoned into a healthy deer population along the Skunk River.

By 1928 efforts were underway to re-establish the deer population statewide. Two deer were purchased from Minnesota and released at the Ledges State Park in Boone County. Their progeny were captured and removed to other parts of the state in the 1940s. By 1950, 89 counties reported deer, totaling some 13,000 head. Naturally, as the deer population increased, the damage to crops increased. So by 1953, deer hunting was once again legal in Iowa during limited seasons. Today, the deer population in Iowa is estimated to be about 450,000. Over 200,000 licenses are sold for deer hunting each year. Hunters harvest between 90,000 and 120,000 deer, which is between 20% and 25% of the estimated population. And, according to the insurance industry, some 800 plus are harvested by the front grill or windshield of passing cars.

In spite of our recent encounter with that hapless deer, we will enjoy seeing them in the yard and noting their hoofprints in the January snow. Perhaps the state’s current management regime will strike that balance we hope for. If not, a new scheme will be introduced and tried as so many have in the past.

Photo by Author