Originally published at: When deer attack | Boing Boing
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Note the vehicle traffic on the road. Deer are known to get weird when spooked, are in rut or when fawns start getting big. Having hit more than one and having seen some severe damage to property by “dez guys”…It ain’t no wonder that deer hunting is encouraged to cull the herds, lower the disease rates in the burgeoning population and balance the ecosystems where white tail deer become a nuisance. While delicious and helpful for reducing hunger as much butchered meat is availed to the poor, they are still a major nuisance in much of their range. Public policy should follow wildlife service recommendations to reduce the real problems caused by Bambi and Bucky cavorting around in the forests. Crop damage alone creates a big impact on the farmer’s bottom line. Deer also carry parasites that aid in the spread of diseases that affect humans. It’s not just fun and games when some garage door gets bashed. That’s just an indicator that a herd needs thinning. Those vehicles moving at highway speeds impacting a deer ?? Go look up how many dead humans met their fate from a deer strike…
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Well, that little episode sure bucked me up for the day.
(I’ll get my coat.)
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While my neighbors see “aw cute wildlife” I see “those dumb assholes that leave piles of shit everywhere in my yard and eat everything in sight.”
I can’t stand the deer. I grew up out in the country and never saw as many deer as I see now, as a middle-aged homeowner in the suburbs.
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Because we’ve eliminated their predators and altered habitat in such a way that encourages deer herds, accidentally or on purpose.
Although the idea of “balance” in ecosystems is difficult to pin down, we’re again taking about an anthropocentric view of the living world. I don’t think the deer see it that way.
FTFY
And so on. Look, I’m not arguing that we should be taking a laissez faire approach to deer management, or that the impacts deer have on humans don’t matter. However, it’s a symptom of the environmental crisis we live in that nearly every species requires precision management (or that we pay no thought to their management unless we eat them or are directly threatened by the diseases they carry). When a species gets to be a problem for us, our only solution is to cull it. I don’t think people are ready to engage with the kinds of change that are actually needed to “rebalance”, or re-wild ecosystems.
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Did I mention the costs to everyone in insurance premiums? There is that, too.
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I totally agree. Another Urban- Wildland interface problem in addition to all the other ones, specifically the big elephants in the room. Fire management. Water and Soil Conservation. Not too mention the other real biggie… the human population.
If there were no humans, would there be a real problem of pressures on the natural environment? Not an existential problem that I am prepared to engage in…
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A little early in the day to be hitting the sauce, dear.
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The deer out front had to face a vote of “no confidence” later that day.
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Damage to the door will cost a buck or two.
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maybe someone painted one of those fake tunnel entrances on the door like in the cartoons and they totally fell for it!
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like the prince of philip was blinded by the sun…
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Chances are that suburb was out in the country when you were growing up. We keep encroaching on the wild places, then considering the animals we’ve displaced to be a nuisance. I imagine the feeling is quite mutual!
The deer can be a nuisance where I am, too. They eat my garden and bring ticks and leave scat. I don’t care, though, I’m still thrilled every time I see them. The groundhogs, though…they’re a different story.
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That hard pavement is slippery for hooves.
I once saw a large deer cross right in front of me on a road through a park and it tried to gracefully jump the guard rail. The back hooves slipped at the critical moment and it struck hard with its chest into the metal barrier. It got back up and cleared the rail on the second try, but I thought that had to leave a bruise.
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Actually, it wasn’t. This problem has been exacerbated by a local corporation that built a way-too-huge office park in the 60s, fenced it entirely, and then gradually moved out over the next 30 years. They created a perfect habitat for wildlife, then prevented anyone from trying to get things under control.
My neighborhood hasn’t been anything BUT suburbs for almost a hundred years now.
The deer population is both completely out of control and horribly domesticated, which is evidenced by their complete comfort in crossing a 4-lane road in broad daylight just to eat someone else’s daylilies.
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I’ll just leave this here:
(Bonus internet points if you recognize the music and why it’s so appropriate)
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Yes! But I don’t know the music.
r/videos suggest they were blinded by the sun.
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