Yep, you guessed it! It’s that time of year again…The Rut!
Around this time of year, you’re driving down the road around dusk and all of a
sudden, there it is….a huge deer in the middle of the road! Or, if you’re like my
husband and me, you get run into out of nowhere in broad daylight by a 6-point
buck!
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| Our poor car that had over $4,000 in damage from one deer |
Unfortunately, there are a lot of casualties around this
time of year for deer due to being hit by cars or hitting cars. It’s hard to
see such large impressive animals like the white-tailed deer that could be food
for another animal or for people just wasted on the side of the road. Not to
mention the potential harm that can come to drivers and all the car damage and
financial issues associated with deer-car collisions. The average cost of a claim for repairs to a car after colliding with a
deer is over $3,500 (according to a StateFarm report)! The chance of hitting a deer varies by state based on deer densities, hunting regulations, number
of licensed drivers, human population density, amount of habitat fragmentation
and other factors.
Since humans have removed top predators from most parts of
the U.S., hunting is an important form of deer population management. I’m not a
hunter and don’t think I can ever become one, plus I’ll admit when I was a young
kid, I thought hunting meant that people were killing Bambi. My uncle and
cousin are hunters and I just didn’t get it, but as I grew up and learned about
wildlife populations and important control methods like hunting, it made more
sense.
If deer populations go unchecked, they can harm ecosystems
by decimating the habitat understory; contribute to the spread of certain
diseases like Lyme disease, potentially harm certain crops and much more. Not
to mention, the impact that large deer populations can have on the deer
themselves, such as starvation, diseases like Chronic Wasting Disease, getting
hit by cars, etc…, so it’s really a bad scenario for everyone if deer
populations grow out of control. It’s of course important for states to
carefully regulate the hunting programs and keep track of safe hunting practices.
In some states, like Illinois, the sales of hunting licenses even help to fund wildlife research programs.
Unfortunately for us, our 2 year old son still talks about
the deer that ran into the car and even reenacts the event with his truck and
toy animals. We have started to simply discuss with him that the deer ran into
the car and then ran away. We think the deer is okay and we needed to get the
car fixed. We’ll start to discuss some of the above concepts with him more as
he asks more questions and gets older.
What do you think about deer population control? How have
you discussed this topic with kids? Please share your comments below.
