Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

AKnitWit777 t1_iyiymhp wrote

Columbia deer aren't afraid of anything, including people on trails and my large dog.

39

ravens40 t1_iyj13s7 wrote

That's true. Sometimes it seems you can get near close enough to pet them before they run away.

3

BakeBeginning7863 OP t1_iyj354p wrote

I heard bucks will attack humans and don’t want to have that situation

2

asWorldsCollide2ptOh t1_iyj3z6y wrote

We have to share this planet and arguably they should have first dibs of the green areas, if you were to ask me.

That aside, White Tail Bucks will attack but only during rut, typically September to November. I've heard women menstruating have increased risk of being attacked.

All that said, attacks on humans are quite rare and I've never heard of one being fatal.

15

xitel t1_iyl7npo wrote

I know you're being serious, and it's important information to share, but as soon as I read "women menstruating have increased risk of being attacked" my mind went right to Steve Carrell in Anchorman saying "I've heard their periods attract bears"

4

BakeBeginning7863 OP t1_iyj4pi2 wrote

Saw a white tail buck on a trail yesterday, came up on it within 10 feet out of no where. I backed up about 20 yards or so for 5 minutes, let it do it’s thing (eating grass) then started walking as it was a little further from the trail. It then ran away as I started walking

1

GingerMan027 t1_iyj96mp wrote

Their only predators are cars around here.

22

picklekit t1_iyn03ia wrote

There’s an in town bow season most years

1

thaweatherman t1_iyj9cpq wrote

It's baby-making season so you'll see them more often than usual. Suburban areas like Columbia (especially like Columbia because of all the wooded areas) are actually an ideal habitat for the deer because of easy access to food and the lack of predators. Can't hunt the city so cars are all that kills them.

21

Rashaverik t1_iytad06 wrote

Actually, there are deer hunts in the area.

I learned some years ago when the Blaindair Park area (Smith farm) was originally owned by the State, there were bow hunts to control the deer population. Too many deer and they starve, so the idea was to thin the population out enough to keep them healthy.

2

thaweatherman t1_iytthg3 wrote

The county runs controlled hunts with a pre-approved list of hunters on specific days in specific parks, yes. Hunters are allowed to use firearms from tree stands. However, this isn’t necessarily enough to make an impact on the population in Columbia.

1

Rashaverik t1_iyjz7rl wrote

  1. It's deer mating season.
  2. Not sure where you're located. With the development of the Blandair Park area, many deer have been pushed into adjacent areas.
  3. Have a buck in our backyard from time to time. He's never been hostile.

EDIT: spelling, grammar

11

Rashaverik t1_iyl1o8y wrote

Also, interesting fact.

Bucks will leave you a nice big hefty turd in your yard in the mornings. Was told by a hunter friend that a buck generally does this in the area where it beds for the night. It doesn't look like regular dear poop.

Before I knew what it was, I thought there was something seriously wrong with my dog.

4

Tacticus1 t1_iyj5emu wrote

There’s just an insane number of deer around and they don’t have a good reason to avoid the paths - they are very accustomed to people and dogs.

5

jgoldy159 t1_iykeza9 wrote

This is not specific for Columbia, but here's a link to a podcast exploring the reasons there are so many deer around. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cub21ueWNvbnRlbnQuY29tL2QvcGxheWxpc3QvODg0ZjhmMjAtMThjMC00ZTQ1LTk2OGQtYWMxNzAwNWJlZWZlLzIzZWVkYWVkLTFkZDItNDA3MC05MjExLWFkYWMwMGZiMjFhYy80YjA3ZTQ0OS0xYmU0LTQ3ZTktOGVmYi1hZGFjMDBmZjRmOWYvcG9kY2FzdC5yc3M/episode/NDEwNTg5YTYtNTEyNi00ZTVlLTk5M2UtYWY1NDAwMTBkZGY4?ep=14

4

tesch1932 t1_iyjigt0 wrote

I swear I see more deer here than when I lived in rural Virginia! (Then again, there was probably more room for them to spread out)

3

bomaed t1_iyke1lt wrote

My daughter has more wildlife around her townhouse in ellicott city than we ever had on our farm in carroll county.

1

Southern-Score2223 t1_iykrinh wrote

If you look hard enough you'll eventually see dead coyotes on the highways in MD. You'll maybe see one in passing and it's less and less frequent.

We drove the coyotes out, for the farms to thrive, developed the farms into subdivisions and now....this is what you get. A ridiculous amount of deer eating all our plants and making our dogs bark and startling everyone on the path when you least expect it.

You get deer, or you get coyotes and less deer, or you get too many coyotes. Pick one. No matter what you do-nature is going to win.

3

PoisonMind t1_iymjmih wrote

We extirpated the wolves and the mountain lions, and have nearly extirpated coyotes, which were their only natural predators, so their population exploded, and they lost their fear of predators.

Suburban environments are also ideal environments for fringe grazers like deer. (Deer don't actually prefer deep forest.)

This is why I support deer hunting. It's the next best option to reintroducing wolves.

To see what happens when you do reintroduce predators, look at what happened when they reintroduced wolves to Yellowstone and otters to the Pacific Northwest.

3

BakeBeginning7863 OP t1_iymkozb wrote

Excellent response. So are you saying hunting replaces the lack of natural predators in this environment? And also, what is the problem with additional deer in the area?

1

PoisonMind t1_iymldcg wrote

I don't think hunting is nearly popular enough to replace the lack of natural predators, but every bit helps.

The problem with deer overpopulation is that it prevents forest regeneration, which leads you get soil erosion, which allows for more runoff, which leads to polluted water, and it also helps invasive species proliferate (because deer don't eat those). It's all sorts of bad news for the local ecology.

2

Lenchantin1 t1_iynjcrq wrote

That's exactly right. In addition to this, the deer population continues to rise and their isn't enough habitat to support them. Consequently, many of them will starve and become susceptible to a disease that easily spreads within the herd. It's all kind of bad news when deer overpopulate an area. Much of it also has to do with development encroaching on their habitat. Hunting is essential to keeping the herd numbers in check. In areas where the people have voted down such opportunities for bow hunters, snipers are hired to shoot them at night in local parks. They are expensive and paid by our tax dollars.

2

ChaseSters t1_iync4sc wrote

No one hunts in Columbia, so nothing to control the deer except cars.

1

Precious-Teacup-1619 t1_iyrewbc wrote

With DNR laws, you cannot hunt within 100 yards of a dwelling. Most homes in Columbia are closer than that making it difficult to control the deer population there. There’s enough trees for them to bed down in, streams for water, and they have gotten used to the humans because (as mentioned previously) there’s no predators out here.

Edit to fix: my husband corrected me—DNR states you can’t hunt within 150 yards of an occupied dwelling.

1

RevRagnarok t1_iyjlnha wrote

Encroaching on their living spaces and decades of Maryland screaming "guNS ArE Bad" so not enough hunting.

−17

BakeBeginning7863 OP t1_iyjlzcs wrote

What are your reasons for being pro-hunting.? It doesn’t seem like the amount of deer is dangerous that they’re starving or need to be controlled by humans?

0

PsychologicalCost8 t1_iyjresa wrote

Overpopulation of any species can cause ecosystem collapse, even without their obvious starvation or encroachment. Overconsumption of feed species (plant or animal), destruction of habitat for other species through overcompetition, runoff characteristic changes causing erosion and overfilling of streams, which has run-on effects for watershed health that affects both our drinking water and our waste removal systems.

For an extreme example, check out writings on the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone, specifically how the physical environment rebounded based on decreasing overpopulation of non-predatory species. i.e. deer: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/yellowstone-wolves-reintroduction-helped-stabilize-ecosystem

The lack of a predation force on grazing animals like deer in suburban areas is a genuine problem for the local ecosystem - though arguably comparable to other issues like grass-monoculture and non-organic runoff.

Despite the commenter you wrote to, Maryland's gun laws are pretty pro-hunting on the whole - little restriction on the types of firearms used for and useful in that activity, and well more than half the year is some sort of hunting season at a state level. The problem is more HoCo-specific, which prohibits private discharge of a weapon at basically all times and has no hunting grounds at all, as far as I've found. The county does two culls a year with hired sharpshooters, but it never quite seems to be enough to really curtail the population in safe bounds; I'd be curious to see them study private-land hunting in-season in the western part of the county, and also study bowhunting in denser areas.

At the end of the day, the problem is that nature doesn't exist outside of human development, but despite it. We're collectively generally pretty bad at actually examining how we fit into ecosystems, treating them like problems to be excluded from our communities rather than complex systems that we're trying to fit ourselves into. Modern life is pretty good at scaring off predators, so instead we have to deal with the prey - we've become the apex predator of the local ecosystem, and failing to act it is a bit like taking the wolves out of Yellowstone.

15

Shento t1_iyjwixd wrote

They do have to be controlled though. Multiple reasons, but spreading ticks and Lyme disease is a big one. I live in Columbia and the Columbia association will shoot deer occasionally hey put up signs to let people be aware for obvious safety reason.

4

FarmerExternal t1_iynvdh6 wrote

Have you noticed there's a lot more car accidents this time of year? It's typically not car on car, it's someone hitting a dear on the highway. The population of deer is dangerous to humans, and unchecked will very soon become dangerous to the deer themselves because over overcrowding. Food is not the only concern here, in overcrowded animal populations there's a much higher chance of them catching and spreading disease amongst the community

1