I had a knock on my door last Friday at about 8am. I thought it might be a UPS delivery since some of their drivers ring the doorbell when they leave a package. But when I opened teh door I was surprised to see a town cop. Turns out a deer got hung up on my neighbor's fence. Somehow his leg got caught and she broke it badly. The poor thing was unable to get off the fence and was badly inured so the cops had to shoot it and needed to access the fence through my backyard. Coincidentally, we just ordered a fence to be installed in my yard to corral our two dogs.
This was the second time this year a deer had to be shot for getting hung up on my neighbors fence. We had another one stuck in the spring.
We are having a huge problem with deer in our neighborhood. There are too many of them and they are roaming through yards in packs as large as 8 or 9. 10 years ago, we had no deer running around like this. Now they are all over the place. I read that 5 to 15 deer per square mile is a healthy population. But in some areas around me the population is as high as 300 per square mile! The deer have become socialized now and don't run from people. Even when I walk my dogs they stand and watch but seem to know they are no threat because they are on a leash.
I started reading about the problem and what the town is going to do about it. I read some interesting facts.
First, there are no natural predators in my area. There are fox and coyotes, but the fox seem to prefer the smaller game. Coyotes are not numerous enough to put a dent in the deer population.
But the striking fact I learned is that in the last 15 years or so the number of hunting licenses issued in NJ has just about halved. The number of deer taken during hunting season is much smaller than in the past so the population is multiplying without any control. This has caused the deer population to grow and spread into the suburbs. They really have nowhere else to go.
The fact that the number of hunters is dwindling is another example of our society changing.