Posted on 12/21/2017 11:43:27 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
VALDOSTA Any driver who's hit a deer or spotted one standing on the shoulder of the road should appreciate the new fencing along portions of Interstate 75.
Old fence with a height of four or five feet has being replaced with eight-foot game fence in various locations in Crisp, Turner, Tift and Lowndes counties through small Georgia Department of Transportation maintenance service contracts, according to a DOT press release.
Fence replacement just concluded in Lowndes County and must be inspected by the department. The other counties are complete.
Contractors were also asked to use wire to fill in bottom gaps at low spots to prevent deer from getting under.
Given a space of a foot or 18 inches, deer will "lay on their belly and scoot right under it. Theyre pretty agile animals," said Charlie Killmaster, Georgia Department of Natural Resources state deer biologist.
Last year, 15,479 motor vehicle collisions with animals were reported on all routes statewide. Those specified as collisions with deer totaled 8,263. However, not all agencies/officers report in the same manner so some of the 7,216 collisions with "animals" may also have been deer, according to the DOT.
The collisions resulted in 969 injuries and 16 fatalities statewide. Those are just the collisions that were reported through law enforcement.
"Its nothing for a deer to jump a five-foot fence. The eight-foot fence may reduce the number of deer that get onto the highway, which can prevent crashes and injuries to motorists," Georgia DOT District Maintenance Engineer Scott Chambers said.
While deer can jump eight feet, "they generally don't unless they're pressured," Killmaster said. The fence height also reduces the chance of a pedestrian accessing the interstate from private property.
We are at the end of the deer breeding period, which is when most collisions occur, Killmaster said. Each year he stresses the importance of paying extra attention for deer during October, November and December.
"If you're on the road and spot a deer, slow down. Don't honk your horn or do anything to try and get the deer to cross the road," Killmaster advised.
Also watch for more than one deer; it's often the second deer that gets hit, he said.
“protestations fell on deaf ears.” I see what you did there.
We live next to an apple orchard here in New Mexico. They have had to put in a 12 foot high fence around the orchard to keep the deer and elk out of it. When I asked them how they kept the bears out thy said, “We open the gate for them”.
It won’t stopXanta; Reindeer though,
Don’t trust your life to them I have seen many vehicle’s with so called deer whistles on them hit deer.
They used to be big in Wisconsin but mostly have went a way as being ineffective.
We kill over 30,000 deer here each year.
Which one do you have.
The immigrant and undocumented Georgia deer were simply doing the work that Alabama deer just wouldnt do...
“Those specified as collisions with deer totaled 8,263.”
MI has 50,000 car/deer accidents a year, and it is estimated that at least that many go unreported each year.
There are so many dead deer along the roads that they refuse to pick them up anymore. They just rot along the roads.
MI has a 3 month deer season each year, and farmers can get almost unlimited permits to shoot them at other times of the year.
My wife has a simple and clear answer to people, who buy a home near a railroad/train line, an airport, hog farm, fair grounds or whatever industry was there before.
“You knew that a railroad/trainline, airport, fair grounds or a hog farm was there before you moved in. So please don’t waste our time bitching about where you moved. No one forced you to move there.
I grew up in Valdosta, used to deliver the Valdosta Daily Times. We called it the 'VD Times'.
Wrong. I lived in the Atlanta area for 40 years and traveled this section of I-75 many times. I have hit deer 3 times in my life and they are stupid, vile animals. Don’t get me wrong, they are delicious but they are over populated and a public menace. Thank God that there are no deer on my retirement island. Only drunks.
We have relatives in the midwest where they have more deer than cows.
One couple had the deer whistle decades installed years ago and never hit a deer. Another relative couple bought a Harley like their relatives with the deer whistle. They didn’t buy a whistle and had a couple of close calls. Then, they and a 200# white tailed tangled. He ended up in deer heaven and they ended up in the ER and later an OR. They limp a little and can predict rain or snow storms with their deer injuries. They did not remember seeing the deer hit them. It was probably running fast and right into their Harley it happened after dark.
When they got their new replacement Harley, their relative installed a deer whistle on it and then installed deer whistles on their vehicles. That was over a decade ago and their Harley and vehicles have remained deer free with the whistles.
We’ve got the same mind on that one. Exactly!
Ever see the movie KING RAT? Venison.
I can’t personnaly vouch for this.
There are rumors that apparently some people drive their suvs, pickups and big vehicles with filet knives and zip bags to rescue the livers, hearts and backstraps from suicidial coastal deer in the trunks of their cars or in a go box in their suvs/pickups. Its called the Coast transplant group.
Now in the city or county if a deer is killed by a vehicle, the property owners are told to drag the carcass into the street and leave it on the edge of the street.
Within minutes, the buzzards/vultures are circling and dining on venison tartar. A neighbor had a tragegy with a dead deer. They called and told us what they were doing as per the authorities. The dead venison weighed about 90 #’s.
With in 15 minutes, the buzzards/vultures were there and landing in our trees awaiting their turn.
After the sunset, all the night critters came out to dine.
The next morning there was some skin and bones, and the neighbors used a pitch fork to put the remains into the compostable container.
This was an economical and ecological way to take care of the dead deer.
Just last night I had a very near miss with a probably 8 point buck but it was in a golf cart. Iam a security guard at a very large RV park converted into a cottages condominium and was patrolling the streets in the cart at 1 AM. A whitetail was suddenly running right at me from dead ahead. He wasn’t attacking, I think, because he had his head up and I don’t think he had noticed me. He broke to the side and went by me at the last possible instant. The golf cart is not fast enough for a deer whistle to be effective.
A deer whistle is a deer whistle.
A deer whistle is a deer whistle. get one or a dozen on Amazon.
Hereabouts the white tails are little critturs. Few go over 100 pounds.
I shot a deer in my slippers once.
Near Wilmington, OH, there’s a “Deer Crossing” sign about 100 yards from a John Deere dealer.
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