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 * 1) With an arsenal of rifles, shotguns, muzzleloaders, handguns, bows and arrows, hunters kill more than 200 million animals yearly - crippling, orphaning, and harassing millions more. The annual death toll in the U.S. includes 42 million mourning doves, 30 million squirrels, 28 million quail, 25 million rabbits, 20 million pheasants, 14 million ducks, 6 million deer, and thousands of geese, bears, moose, elk, antelope, swans, cougars, turkeys, wolves, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, boars, and other woodland creatures.
 * 2) Less than seven percent of the U.S. population hunts.
 * 3) Hunting is permitted on 60 percent of U.S. wildlife refuges and in many national forests and state parks
 * 4) The kill ratio at a couple hundred feet with a semi-automatic weapon and scope is virtually 100 percent.
 * 5) The stress that hunting inflicts on animals--the noise, the fear, and the constant chase--severely restricts their ability to eat adequately and store the fat and energy they need to survive the winter.
 * 6) When hunters talk about shooting overpopulated animals, they are usually referring to white-tailed deer, representing only 3 percent of all the animals killed by hunters.
 * 7) Sport hunters shoot millions of mourning doves, squirrels, rabbits, and waterfowl, and thousands of predators, none of whom any wildlife biologist would claim are overpopulated or need to be hunted.
 * 8) Hunters also shoot nonnative species such as ring-necked pheasants who are hand-fed and raised in pens and then released into the wild just before hunting season.
 * 9) Hunters and hunting organizations also promote the idea that hunting is necessary for "wildlife management" and "conservation.
 * 10) State agencies build roads through our wild lands to facilitate hunter access, they pour millions of tax dollars into law enforcement of hunting regulations and hunter education, and into manipulating habitat by burning and clear-cutting forests to increase the food supply for "game" species such as deer
 * 11) More food means a larger herd and more animals available as targets.
 * 12) Hunting programs also cause wildlife overpopulation by stimulating breeding by conducting "buck only" hunts, which can leave as many as six does per buck; pen-raising quail, grouse, and pheasants for use as hunters' targets; transporting raccoons, antelopes, martens, wild turkeys, and other animals from one state to another to bolster populations for hunters; and exterminating predators like wolves and mountain lions in order to throw prey populations off balance, thereby "justifying" the killing of both "dangerous" and "surplus" animals.
 * 1) Hunters claim that they pay for "conservation" by buying hunting licenses, duck stamps, etc
 * 2) But the relatively small amount each hunter pays does not cover the cost of hunting programs or game warden salaries
 * 3) It is estimated that, for every animal a hunter kills and recovers, at least two wounded but unrecovered animals die slowly and painfully of blood loss, infection, or starvation.
 * 1) In recent years, deer populations have increased to numbers unsupportable by wildlife habitat alone
 * 2) Many researchers believe that this increase results from continued human incursion into deer habitat, and the mismanagement of deer populations by forest and wildlife authorities who see hunting as the primary means of population control.
 * 3) Wildlife and land management agencies purport to effectively limit deer populations to numbers sustainable by their natural habitat.
 * 4) The overpopulation of deer stems not only from the specific mismanagement of deer populations, but from the mismanagement of our forestlands and natural areas.
 * 5) Currently, there are approximately eight does for every buck in the wild
 * 6) Laws restrict the number of does that hunters may kill.
 * 7) Deer do not have monogamous mating relationships, and bucks will often mate with more than one female
 * 8) As a result, the ratio of does to bucks sets the stage for a population explosion.
 * 9) Hunting does remove some animals from the population, but it does not keep deer populations at a continually reduced level.
 * 10) Immediately after a hunt, the remaining animals flourish because less competition for food exists, allowing the remaining animals to live healthier lives, and resulting in a higher reproductive rate.
 * 11) Left alone by humans, the ratio of does to bucks would be approximately equal
 * 12) In Defense of Animals believes that sport hunting is not only an ineffective wildlife management tool, but a cruel and unnecessary practice.
 * 13) Banning sport hunting, however, is only one of the measures needed to control deer population.
 * 14) We also need to change the land management policies that create large deer populations, and to limit deer access to vegetation in human habitations
 * 15) Many national, private, and state owned lands are open to logging. The natural fires that used to renew forests are no longer allowed to burn with regularity.
 * 1) In the early 1900's there were an estimated 500,000 white-tailed deer in the United States
 * 2) Unregulated commercial hunting and subsistence hunting threatened to eliminate the white-tailed deer from much of its range.
 * 3) Hunting regulations were put into place, and the harvest of antlerless (female) deer was prohibited.
 * 4) The rebound of white-tailed deer populations that followed is considered a wildlife management success story.
 * 5) Today there are over 20 million deer in the United States and numbers are rising.
 * 6) Successful management was one of the keys to increasing populations
 * 7) Around the turn of the century, large predators such as wolves and mountain lions, were eliminated from much of the white-tails range, removing the natural check on deer numbers
 * 8) More recently, habitat changes, including reversion of abandoned farm fields to forest, and human population shifts to rural and suburban areas, have created mosaics of open and forested land ideal for deer.
 * 9) In addition to habitat changes, landowner decisions to prevent hunting have limited hunter access to many areas, allowing populations to increase.
 * 10) Deer are very charismatic animals, and many people in New York enjoy seeing,watching, photographing, or hunting deer
 * 11) Although a highly valued species, the white-tailed deer has reached record population levels in many states and will continue to grow.
 * 12) Overall, public attitudes toward deer are becoming more negative as deer populations increase (Swihart and DeNicola, 1997).
 * 13) Public concerns include crop damage, damage to landscape plants, deer/car collisions, transmission of Lyme Disease, and effects of high deer populations on habitat quality for both deer and other wildlife species.
 * 14) Many communities are facing the challenge of managing locally-overabundant deer herds in areas closed to hunting
 * 15) Fencing and repellents can help manage site-specific problems, however these methods may just move deer and potential damage to other locations.
 * 16) As long as adequate food resources are available, deer populations can double in size every 2-3 years.
 * 17) Eventually some form of population management is needed to control herd growth and maintain deer numbers within the social carrying capacity.
 * 1) The whitetail deer (Odocoileus virginianus), so named for it's signature tail, the underside of which is white and often the only part of the deer one will see as it turns away to run, tail held up in the process
 * 2) deer are becoming immune to peoples encroachment,
 * 3) while not only do they not run in fear, but will come right up into our yards and gardens looking for some choice morsel of food
 * 4) The whitetail, at one time the occupier of only rural areas, now lives among us in our suburbs and even our cities
 * 5) They range from just a few in an area, to overly abundant populations
 * 6) They are so abundant and popular that many states even list the whitetail deer as their state mammal
 * 7) The whitetail deer does have predators and other natural number keepers
 * 8) This includes man, both through hunting and the ever increasing vehicle-deer accident, wolves, bobcats and mountain lions, diseases and parasites, other deer through fights, and the weather which can result in freezing and starvation of whole herds.
 * 9) Many different foods, including acorns, hay, corn, apples, the buds off of the apple trees, cabbage, pine, cedar, and just about any other vegetable or green that they can get access too.
 * 10) This adaptability in their food choices is one reason their terrain is so wide spread.
 * 11) Fawns are typically born in early spring
 * 12) Colored similar to their mother, ranging from a light tan to a deep red, the fawns also are spotted
 * 13) helps blend into their backgrounds
 * 14) providing a natural camouflage from predators
 * 15) As yearlings, it is common for them to weigh over one hundred pounds, and matured adult bucks can weigh well over 350lbs.
 * 1) People value deer for a wide range of reasons
 * 2) Regardless of one's primary philosophy, there tends to be general agreement that management of damage is necessary when too many deer create negative economic impacts or health and safety concerns
 * 3) The links on this page address a wide variety of information pertaining to deer nuisance and disease issues.
 * 4) Several years ago, scientists at Cornell University, USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and the New York State Departments of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Agriculture & Markets initiated a cooperative program aimed at developing a comprehensive understanding of wildlife damage problems and management options in New York State
 * 5) Past efforts have addressed a variety of problems caused by rodents, birds, squirrels, Canada geese, beaver, and white-tailed deer.
 * 6) Funding and collaboration among the participating agencies allows expanded efforts, principally in deer management, but also targeting other damage problems
 * 7) The Wildlife Damage Management Program allows management experts to address numerous wildlife damage concerns, and coordinate research projects with an education and information dissemination program that reaches extension specialists, growers, nurserymen, and homeowners throughout New York State and the northeast.

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 * 1) Deer are members of the order Artiodactyle,
 * 2) which means that they have hoofs with an even number of toes.
 * 3) They are native to all continents except for Australia and Antarctica.
 * 4) There are about 100 types of deer, including the whitetail deer, reindeer, elk, moose, mule deer, blacktail deer and caribou.
 * 5) Male deer are called bucks, bulls, stags or harts
 * 6) Female deer are called does, cows or hinds.
 * 7) Young deer are called fawns or calfs.
 * 8) Deer can adapt well to just about any habitat
 * 9) They prefer to live in "edge" habitats.
 * 10) Edges are human-made or natural habitat breaks, for instance from woods to croplands
 * 11) They will use the woodlands for cover and shelter and the open land to graze in.
 * 12) In northern latitudes, deer may live in different areas in the summer and winter months
 * 13) These areas can be as far as 30 miles apart
 * 1) Quality deer habitat includes a mixture of trees, shrubs, vines, forbs, grasses and other plants such as fungi and sedges
 * 2) Certain plants within each of these categories benefit deer more than others.
 * 3) Desirable plants should be well interspersed throughout an area, so that the whole area functions as deer habitat.
 * 4) In this region (southern Oklahoma and northern Texas), adequate woody plants should be present to provide food, shelter and concealment. Some type of water source should be available every mile or so.
 * 5) Enough area with appropriate plants should be available to support a viable population
 * 6) Plant diversity is an important aspect of habitat, because deer require a variety of plants to provide their various needs
 * 7) Many plants are utilized during only one season or a portion of a season
 * 8) Each plant that is eaten provides only a portion of a deer's nutritional requirements
 * 9) Some plants serve as cover and concealment
 * 10) Deer need a variety of plants to have high-quality, year-round food and cover
 * 11) Plant diversity is generally adequate where native plant communities are emphasized and managed for a variety of successional stages.
 * 12) Plant succession is the natural progressive change of plant species and communities on a site across time.
 * 13) Disturbances such as tilling, clearing, flooding, mowing, grazing and burning set back succession by various degrees
 * 14) Rest or lack of disturbance allows succession to progress forward toward more mature, stable plant communities.
 * 15) Productive soils generally grow higher-quality foods and more volume of food than less productive soils.
 * Deer, being adaptable, learn to live around humans and the "edges" we create.
 * Mature does will regularly give birth to twins yearly.
 * Single and triplet fawns are not uncommon
 * Two deer without predation can produce a herd of up to135 deer in 7 years.
 * Deer can live up to 18 years.
 * Food types include grasses, shrubs, leaves, needles and "mast" from oak, beech, and apple trees.
 * In areas of overpopulation, deer can cause an "over browsing" effect which destroys most plant species up to six feet destroying the forest renewal process. Gardens, plants and shrubs can also be destroyed.
 * Undernourished deer are smaller- weaker and prone to die from starvation. This is not good for the environment nor is it good stewardship of the animals.
 * Deer require 10-12 pounds of food each day for most of the year.
 * In late winter their diet is supplemented by their stored fat.
 * This is usually the time when overpopulated deer herds extend their range into back yards to consume your shrubs and plants! However, this can happen at any time of year!
 * When deer run out of stored fat and available browse they start to metabolize their bone marrow and starvation is eminent.
 * Deer are ruminants and have multi chambered stomachs similar to cows.
 * Deer establish a home range and will not leave it.
 * Deer are known to starve or drown rather than leave their home range.
 * Deer are known to starve or drown rather than leave their home range.

[] 1.The Deer is described as the collective name for Artiodactyl ruminant mammals of the family Cervidae. 2.Ruminant animals are even-toed, cud-chewing, hoofed, usually horned mammals which have a stomach divided into four (occasionally three) compartments. 3.Deer are characterised by having deciduous antlers which are borne chiefly by the males. 4.Examples of ruminant mammals are cattle, sheep, goats, deer, and giraffes. 5.The deer family also includes the [|Elk], [|Moose] , [|Caribou] , and [|Reindeer]. 11.The average size of a litter is one or two fawns 12.The collective name for a group of Deer is a herd 13.The sound made by a Deer is referred to as a bellow 14.Fully grown deer reach the height of 2.1 m (7 feet) 15.The smallest member of the deer family is the pudu
 * 6.Odocoileus virginianus - The white-tailed deer, or Viirginian Deer **
 * 7.Odocoileus columbianus - The black-tailed deer **
 * 8.Odocoileus hemionus - The mule deer **
 * 9.alces - The moose **
 * 10.Cervus elaphus - The Red Deer or the Elk **

1.White-tailed deer, the smallest members of the North American deer family, 2. are found from southern Canada to South America. 3. In the heat of summer they typically inhabit fields and meadows using clumps of broad-leaved and coniferous forests for shade. 4.During the winter they generally keep to forests 5.Adult white-tails have reddish-brown coats in summer which fade to a duller grayish-brown in winter. 6.Male deer, called bucks, are easily recognizable in the summer and fall by their prominent set of antlers 7.Only the bucks grow antlers, which bear a number of tines, or sharp points. 8.During the mating season, also called the rut, 9.bucks fight over territory by using their antlers in sparring matches. 10.Female deer, called does, give birth to one to three young at a time, 11.usually in May or June and after a gestation period of seven months 12.In the wild, white-tails, particularly the young, are preyed upon by bobcats, mountain lions, and coyotes 13.They use speed and agility to outrun predators, sprinting up to 30 miles (48 kilometers) per hour and leaping as high as 10 feet (3 meters) and as far as 30 feet (9 meters) in a single bound. 14.usually in May or June and after a gestation period of seven months. 15.fawns, wear a reddish-brown coat with white spots that helps them blend in with the forest