Guest Post - Deer Populations Across the Nation

I received an email back in January from, Steve Jacobs, of Sportsman Warehouse, about doing a guest post on my blog.  I consider this site to be a great resource for my readers who love to fish and hunt.  Below, Steve has written an informative post on our deer population in our great wild outdoors.

DEER  POPULATION  ACROSS  THE  NATION

In the early years of the 20th century in the United States, the population of the white-tailed deer was estimated to be under just a half million deer. Those were the early days of conservation, and that was a very good thing for the white-tailed deer. Those early conservationists raised an outcry that the deer was on the verge of extinction. Soon states began creating regulations for hunting the deer. The most important of these was the prohibition of shooting antlerless deer, which saved all of the breeding females.

Unfortunately, the conservationists were not as successful at saving the large predators that feed on the white-tailed deer. Wolves and mountain lions were basically eliminated from the majority of the white-tailed deer’s range. With no large predators and favorable hunting regulations in place, the deer was suddenly free to expand its numbers in short order. This has led to an explosion in deer populations across the country.

It is now estimated that there are over 20 million white-tailed deer in the United States, and that number is very swiftly rising. The number of deer in forested areas of the Eastern United States is usually about 40 per square mile, but it pales in comparison to their numbers in metropolitan areas of the Eastern United States. Many Eastern metro areas have populations as high as 100 deer per square mile. It is no wonder that there are so many deer and automobile collisions. The deer populations in metro areas are denser than they are in the forests.

This is due to the fact that many suburban areas of Eastern metros are perfectly suited for the white-tailed deer’s needs. White-tailed deer love a habitat that includes forest and open areas in close proximity. With the advent of modern urban sprawl across the United States, open areas have been interspersed between forested zones all over. This has created the perfect method to encourage deer to establish their populations in suburban zones.

It is imperative that something be done to stop this rapid rise in deer populations across the country. The reason that deer have rebounded so quickly is that they can double their populations every three years if enough food is present. With the abundance of habitat that has been created for them, they have no trouble finding all the food that they need right now.

Since there are no large predators left to check the deer populations, hunting must be increased to fight the explosion of the white-tailed deer populations. More states need to allow hunters to kill antlerless deer, because this is one of the best methods to quickly shrink the deer population. If something is not done soon, this is only going to get worse.

Author Bio:  Steve Jacobs is an avid outdoorsman and enjoys everything from hunting to fishing and beyond. Over the years Steve has come to be an expert in many of the fields – fishing and hunting supplies, gear, ammo etc - he loves and works for Sportsmans Warehouse helping others enjoy the outdoors.