Michigan hasn't had any natural predators in over a hundred years.
It's loss of habitat here in S.E. Michigan and no safe means to kill them since they are living in wooded pockets in suburbia..
Where I live, there is a 1/10 square mile wooded area between my sub and an 8 lane highway. I know there are at least five deer in there since my trail camera picked them up in my back yard by my bird feeder. And every year at least two deer are seen dead by the highway who were hit by vehicles.
> no safe means to kill them since they are living in wooded pockets in suburbia <
Some suburban communities near me are hiring bow hunters to do the job. I suppose that’s safer than using a shotgun or rifle.
It would make sense to alert the locals as to when the bow hunters are in action. After all, you don’t want some guy mowing his yard to catch an arrow. But whether or not alerts go out I do not know.
“ no safe means to kill them since they are living in wooded pockets in suburbia..”
Cross bow, recurve bow or compound bow. Pick your arrow delivery device and the deer can be taken silently. 😉
We have coyotes, but the jerks keep killing them because...chickens. Keep the chickens penned with overhead wire and the coyotes will not get to them. I hate that the big, bad game hunters have no hearts.
I love the sound of coyotes
You’ve got the right answer: it’s not loss of predators, doh, they’ve been gone for over a century, it’s isolated habitat that concentrates deer populations within limited areas.
I see deer all the time in parks in Northern VA — 5, 10+ acres, yet I’ve never seen one in our woods in Maine, which lie amidst thousands of acres of connected woodland.