Posted on 11/01/2005 12:39:02 PM PST by GreenFreeper
Large populations of deer are edging out forest birds in North America, report scientists in this month's issue of the journal Biological Conservation. The study is the first to evaluate the impact deer grazing can have on nest quality and food resources in areas unaffected by human activities such as forestry or hunting. It also offers general rules for predicting the influence these animals could have on bird ecosystems in the future. The decline of forest birds has been blamed mostly on such factors as disease, loss of habitat and an increase in the number of animals that prey on bird nests. But according to biologist Sylvain Allombert of the Center for Functional Evolution and Biology in Montpellier, France, and colleagues, few studies have considered the overabundance of deer, whose populations are reaching historic peaks. The white-tailed deer population, for example, is ecologically excessive in 73 percent of its range in North America, and other deer species tip the scales in up to 41 percent of their range. These animals can devastate a forest understory, which is used by some birds for nesting and also serves as a home to insects, worms and other invertebrates that birds rely on for food.
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Allombert's team examined the relationship of deer and forest birds on six islands in the Haida Gwaii archipelago, a chain of about 350 islands off the coast of British Columbia. Here, the Sitka black-tailed deer thrives, having been introduced by colonists in the late 19th century. To obtain a solid comparison, the researchers studied islands with a range of deer history: two of the islands had no deer at all, two had deer populations for about 20 years and two had deer for more than 50 years. They also surveyed the birds that were typically dependent on the forest understory, such as warblers, wrens, sparrows, woodpeckers and hummingbirds, and ranked their dependence on the vegetation. Lastly, the scientists took into consideration an existing study of 31 islands that detailed the impact of deer on vegetation.
The team found that the more a bird species relied on the forest understory for nesting and food, the more it was adversely affected by a sizable deer population. For example, on the islands browsed by deer for more than 50 years, bird abundance was 55 percent to 70 percent lower than on the deer-free islands. For those species that had the highest dependence on forest-floor plants, the numbers were dramatic. The fox sparrow and the rufous hummingbird, for instance, were common on deer-free islands but missing on the islands with a long browsing history. The study has implications for understanding bird populations in such regions and for managing deer abundance. "These trends, when put together with results from this and previous studies, underline the potential role of deer abundance as a factor explaining negative population trends in forest songbirds, a role probably still under-estimated," the authors write. And by monitoring the understory and keeping tabs on bird populations, biologists will have a better means for regulating deer numbers. --Tracy Staedter
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It's almost deer season here in Texas and no matter how many we shot, they just keepa comin. There's too many idiots around here feeding them like they're pets.
So we can kill off the deer and increase our risk of avian flu, or let the deer drive off the birds, and increase the risk of cwd?
Get out, fellas, and do some hunting!
Republican deer hate the environment?
Damn those deer! GET ME MY GUN?!
This may be the first study on this topic specifically restricted to "areas unaffected by human activities such as forestry or hunting", but there have been previous studies finding the exact same thing in all areas with large deer populations. As an owner of well-fed, spayed/neutered, free-roaming cats, I get tired of hearing how cats are responsible for the decline in bird populations. In suburban areas, it's the result of pervasive paving and unnatural landscaping and bright lights at night, and in rural areas, it's the result of now predator-less deer wiping out practically every natural plant species other than ferns and barberries.
EAT MORE VENISON!
I'm havin' Bambi (and his mom!) for dinner...
Deer population increases -- warblers and woodpeckers suffer most.
Personally, I am so tired of the deer management issue. We need more hunting, period. Whether its human hunters or the introduction of other predators, something needs to control deer populations!
Kill more dear deer and give the venison to all the poor starving victims of Katrina.
I wonder if they'd eat it?
Maybe if they would if they were told it was KFC or Church's or "Mickey D's"
As someone who spends a lot of time in the woods, I would say that yes, there are more deer now than ever; however, I beleive that it is not so much the deer as it is the exclusive row planting of pines- of which almost nothing of food value grows under (until they are matured and thinned). If you hunt an oak hammock and the next day a thick planted pine forest, you'll see immediately where the birds aren't. Until we get better forest management techniques, we're going to have this problem, but in the meantime break out that 30-30 and lets all eat some venison!
I am a hunter, and have shot sick deer the government people said can't exist.
I am also told, that wolves eat only the sick animals, so why not bring back the wolves? even tho the sick deer don't exist, don't want to call the government folks liars.
I'll be just outside of Llano, Texas this Saturday morning doing my part to alleviate the deer overpopulation problem. With the exception of any wild turkeys I encounter I'll leave it up to you to take care of thinning out the birds.
Nope. It should be Popeye's Venison. Ummmm.
I grew up in rural PA, where there would be school holidays for hunting season. When you drove on the roads, one rarely saw deer. One had to sneak up on them at night with spotlights.
Now I drive my kids to school in the outer VA suburbs of D.C. This morning I had to slow to avoid a buck and a doe in the middle of the road. Every morning and afternoon it's deer, deer, deer everywhere.
Personally I think more research needs to be put into contraceptives for them. Most people don't really want wolves and mountain lions roaming the densely human-populated areas where a lot of the deer are living now. And hunting or professional sharpshooting is actually and politically impractical in suburban areas.
The latter was tried once in my suburban township, after a long heated debate between the anything-to-save-my-prize-peonies crowd, the how-COULD-you-think-of-hurting-adorable-Bambi crowd, and the Oh-my-God!-Not-GUNS! crowd. The prize-peonies crowd originally won, after assuring the Not-GUNS! crowd that only professional sharpshooters would be used, and that residents would be informed in advance of the dates, times, and locations. The adorable-Bambi crowd had gone rather quiet after a local father was decapitated in a deer-car collision while driving his 7 year old son to soccer practice (the adorable-Bambi crowd seems to consist largely of soccer moms). But when the first shooting day came, the local government bureaucrats predictably forgot to inform the affected residents, and the police were flooded with calls from terrified suburbanites who'd heard very nearby rifle shots while out tending their prize peonies. The prize-peonies crowd promptly forgot about their peonies and joined the Not-GUNS! crowd, and I can pretty well guarantee that no deer will ever be shot in my township again in my lifetime.
Hunting in rural areas can certainly help, but isn't likely to solve the whole probelm, and to some extent (like my second home near state game lands) increased hunting would drive a larger number of deer onto private residential property, where shooting them becomes more problematic. We need some nice little "treats" that folks who are inclined to feed Bambi can helpfully distribute, to keep Bambi from making so many little Bambis.
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