Are Deer Becoming a Nuisance Animal?

Cassie Christensen

 

When people think of deer they think probably immediately think of the beginning of hunting season and the food that they provide. They do not normally think of them as a nuisance in their lives. More and more people today are now starting to believe that deer are starting to become a part of the nuisance wildlife population. There are many accounts of across many states of deer becoming a nuisance animal. People blame deer for many things that happen in their yards and lives.

They say that they have become a nuisance because of causing damage to people’s properties. The damage that they cause is mostly to vegetable gardens and flower gardens. They like to eat the plants and the flowers. When they do this they might ultimately kill the plants or flowers. The deer might also dig up some of the lawn and leave hoof prints, and many people find this and unattractive sight for their yards. Another reason that people think that deer are becoming a nuisance is because of the amount of offspring that they are seeing with each doe. They believe because they see them more that the population is growing out of control in some areas. Maybe that is the case in some areas, but it might not be that way in other areas that deer are recently seen. With the sight of more deer comes the possibility of seeing them cross the roads more often. In association with this comes the higher risk of the deer being hit on the road and causing more accidents. This is one of the most highly regarded reasons in why people believe that deer are becoming a bigger nuisance. There are also a couple of lesser reasons why some people believe they are becoming more of a nuisance animal. These would include the sighting of deer in city limits and some getting into local factories. I have had the pleasure of seeing a deer get trapped into a factory. She was crossing the road when a car came and was scared into the open doors. The factory workers then had to stop what they were doing and try to get the deer out of the building. In this retrospect the deer had become a nuisance.

            Even though in some areas deer may start to look like they are becoming part of the nuisance wildlife population, I do not believe that they are. As we keep expanding outward in our cities we are taking away their areas that they have once lived. When we do this we are coming at them from all sides and shrinking the living areas of these deer. They then have no way out but to go through the city and try to find their way. We are also cutting down on their nearby food supply by doing all of this development. This reason causes deer to cross highways and smaller roads more often. They are in search of food. This is also the reason why they come into our yards to eat our vegetables and flowers. They eat the food there because there is no other place to find it. Deer are not becoming part of the nuisance wildlife population on purpose. We are forcing them into it.