It’s a common suggestion: if there’s a place with too many deer, round them up and move them to a place with too few.
Most recently some people suggested that as a solution to the deer overpopulation problem in Mt. Lebanon.
But can that really work?
When Pennsylvania’s deer almost disappeared a little more than a century ago, wildlife officials helped bring back the herd, in part, by importing deer from other states. Old photos show deer being shipped in wooden crates via railroad.
Wildlife experts have said since, though, that trap and transfer is not really viable on a large scale.
That’s all prompted lots of arguments over the years.
Here’s a really good take on the subject, though. Duane Diefenbach, director of the Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Penn State University, wrote a story for the Deer-Forest Blog looking at how trap and transfer works, what it costs, how it impacts deer, and what the results of moving deer long distances might be. It’s written to offer up facts only, no opinions.
It’s a pretty enlightening read, and one worth some time. Check it out by clicking here.
