Q&A about deer in Virginia

By Dave Thompson

Published: October 31, 2008

If you live most anywhere in Virginia, chances are you’ve seen white-tailed deer, and chances are you’ll see them again.

What you may not realize is you’ll probably see the same deer several times, especially if it’s a female or older buck.

“They’re very true to their site,” said Matt Knox, the Deer Project coordinator for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. “It’s kind of like Virginians.”

Knox, along with biologist Dan Lovelace, also with DGIF, held a workshop this week at Sweet Briar College, giving a history of deer in Virginia, and addressing common issues that arise with such a high population of them.

How many deer are there in Virginia?
According to numbers from the DGIF, there are between 900,000 and 1 million deer across the state.

That number, Knox said, has remained fairly stable over the past decade, but encounters with humans become more common as once-rural area becomes more urbanized.In 1938, only an estimated 50,000 existed statewide. In 1928, the Virginia Game Commission (now the DGIF) began transplanting deer. Since then, they transplanted 4,200 deer statewide, and due to protection laws and urbanization, the number skyrocketed.

What causes the deer to stay in place?
Deer, especially the females, are geared, like some other animals, to stay true to the site where they were born.

Females will stay very close to the area in which they were born and raised. Males will usually migrate up to 30 miles in their first 18 months, but after that will remain stable.

How has urbanization caused the number of deer to grow?
The land that used to be hunted forests is not hunted on anymore because of a more dense human presence.

Add to that the fact that deer love cultivated, available plants, and humans like to keep their yards, gardens, orchards and farms lush. As a result, deer end up with little motivation to leave they grow up in.

What are some of the negative impacts that deer have on humans?
Deer and humans coexist in a delicate balance Lovelace called the “social-carrying capacity,” or the number of deer that can peacefully live near a population of humans.

Deer become a nuisance, Lovelace said, when the balance is disrupted, either by becoming too numerous or infringing on human territory like gardens and public streets.

A common complaint is that deer graze in gardens, orchards or decorative flower gardens, where the plants exist at a very accessible height for the deer.

Another is disease. Deer are known carriers of tuberculosis, and also serve as a convenient host for deer ticks, which carry Lyme disease.If there are deer in my yard, should I be more concerned about deer ticks?

Yes, according to Knox. When deer ticks grow to their adult stage, they need larger hosts to survive. Deer provide the best host, and in populations where deer are sparse, deer ticks can hardly be found.

What can I do to keep the deer away from my plants?
Lovelace mentioned several different methods:

- Fences: short or tall, electric or not, straight or slanted — all have different advantages, practically and aesthetically.

- Repellents: chemical or natural sprays, electric zappers, motion-activated sprinklers — some of the effectiveness is debated.

- Other plants: Planting a high hedge around a garden could discourage deer from putting too much effort into grazing there.

When and where are vehicle wrecks with deer common?
Knox said vehicle wrecks involving deer spike during the fall and early winter, coinciding with deer mating season.

According to a study by the Highway Loss Data Institute, Virginia reported four animal-related fatal crashes in 2007. The state reported six fatal animal-related wrecks in 2005 and 2006, compared to only one per year in 2002-03.

Statewide, deer vehicle crashes jumped between 2003 and 2008.

That trend held true in Lynchburg and its surrounding counties, with the exception of Appomattox County, where deer-related crashes fell by 19 over the four years.

Are we doing anything to reduce the population?
Yes. According to Knox, hunting regulations have gotten more liberal over the years, with allowances for conditional killing if deer are harming your property.

Some cities, including Lynchburg and Bedford, have employed sharpshooters with the express purpose of taking out deer in problem areas, or areas where they cause an annoyance.

Also, hunters are encouraged to bag more doe, or antlerless deer, as the quota restrictions on bucks won’t let hunters make a dent in the overall population.

What about nonlethal methods of reducing the population?
Lovelace mentioned methods, such as shooting the doe with darts full of a contraceptive, but such methods are impractical and expensive with few proven results.

And with the current population totals, it is impractical, he said, to transplant enough deer far enough away to make a difference.

There are deer in my yard, and the winter is coming. Can I feed them?

State law prohibits feeding deer during hunting season, which ends Jan. 3.

Knox cautions against feeding deer at any time, due to health and dependency concerns.

Where can I get more information?
State regulations, guidelines and other information about deer can be found online at http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/wildlife/deer/.

State regulations for hunting deer and other animals can be found online, at, http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/hunting.