Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Ct-5736-Bladez t1_ixvjdjg wrote

Reply to comment by CodeMonkey789 in 1st day of rifle season --- good luck to all you hunters! by Bocephus8892

Deer have almost zero natural predators in this state. Hunting is a crucial part of conservation efforts and population control.

21

Borg_10501 t1_ixwvypa wrote

Deer have fewer natural predators because humans have been culling them (particularly wolves) due to conflicts of interest from ranchers, developers, etc. I don't think the deer population needed to be "managed" before Europeans set foot on American soil.

> Hunting is a crucial part of conservation efforts and population control.

Hunting was responsible for the extinction of the passenger pigeon and the almost extinction of the American bison. Several species of wolves no longer exist due to hunters. The great 'nittany lion' that used to roam PA no longer exist because they've been killed off. The conservation angle was forced upon hunters because some people with common sense realized that killing everything off was going to have negative consequences.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_American_animals_extinct_in_the_Holocene#Recent

As someone who grew up in rural PA, no hunter I've ever talked to gave a rat's ass about conservation. All they cared about was bagging the biggest buck. If the state govt didn't regulate it, we'd have no deer left.

−1

CodeMonkey789 t1_ixxfql1 wrote

Ah look at that - no one able to refute facts. They don’t care about facts. They just have feelings (to kill and be violent)

​

😔

3

Verkato t1_iy0tldj wrote

Wolves definitely would help with the population but them being one of the causes for Deer overpopulation is a myth. Wolves do not drastically reduce numbers of deer but they do create a "culture of fear" that causes them to not just brazenly walk around in human developments.

The fact is deer just do particularly well in our suburban and rural environments and are in no fear of extinction due to hunting. Your wiki link is relevant to nothing considering those were mostly endangered species from the first half of the last century or earlier.

It does sound like you agree that rules should be in place for hunting deer but in no way are humans putting them in danger of extinction. I don't really give a shit about hunting btw but I'm sure it has gotten many deer out of the environment that would otherwise be inside the grill of someone's car right now.

2