Deer in our suburban neighborhood nicely encapsulate all the issues of controlling human population, without most of the historical and moral considerations. Like bears, coyotes, and other mammals, they have adjusted well to a few human environments.
Unlike, say, cockroaches (also well adapted) deer are cute and majestic. Unlike, say, mice, they do not come indoors. And unlike many adaptive species, there are relatively few, mostly out of sight most of the time. And not carnivorous.
So you would think “no problem.” But there are too many of them. They kill gardens and young trees as many starve to death in winter. They present driving hazards and cause accidents, sometimes fatal, usually expensive.
Solutions are drastic and only partially effective. Kill them in brutal numbered extermination or open hunting seasons with danger to people. Try to introduce contraception or sterilization through food supply or darts. Mostly, these methods are repetitiously expensive. Letting them starve and defoliate the entire area is hardly an option.
Gee, but they are cute. God’s gentle creatures. Who wants to kill Bambi and her mother? And there are all kinds of angry political positions. We can’t easily control deer population _ we can’t even touch the issues about people and overcrowding.
HuntingtonHarborThoughts 