Facts And Fictions

About Deer

To the Editor:

The advertisement “Myths and Facts about Deer Management” (November 9) was loaded with inaccuracies and misrepresentations that need to be corrected.

Fiction: Deer are responsible for Lyme disease, and therefore need to be hunted.

Fact: The Lyme disease-causing tick (Ixodes scapularis) is carried by over 40 bird species and all mammals. So even in hunts that removed a high percentage of deer — even up to 83 percent — tick decline did not result. Actually, mice are the primary host for immature ticks, which are the most infectious to people. A recent study underscored that Lyme disease risk is correlated with the abundance of mice and chipmunks (immature tick hosts) and food resources for these hosts (acorns), not the abundance of deer.

Ticks also thwart deer reduction efforts by switching to other hosts or congregating at higher densities on the remaining deer. The bottom line is that hunting doesn’t significantly reduce the tick population.

Fiction: The four-poster feeding device will spread chronic wasting disease to people.

Fact: The four-poster has not been implicated in any CWD cases. Rather, it is an ingenious baiting device that uses the deer to kill disease-causing ticks. When deer eat the corn bait, a chemical is applied to their shoulders, which kills up to 98 percent of the adult ticks in a 50-acre area. A study done at the Goddard Flight Center found that by using the four-poster system, adult ticks were completely eliminated by the second year of the study; and all tick stages were reduced 91–100 percent by year three.

Fiction: Contraceptive technology doesn’t work as proven by the recent failure of a contraceptive vaccine tested on deer in New Jersey.

Fact: The reason for this particular failure was that the manufacturer changed the formulation and heated the vaccine to such a high degree that the vaccine’s efficacy was diminished. Published scientific studies on Fire Island and at the National Standards and Technology attest to how immunocontraception can lower deer reproduction.

Fiction: No scientific data supports the claim that hunting activity increases deer-car collisions.

Fact: A recent study points to a dramatic increase of deer-car collisions on opening day of hunting season, which is statistically linked to nothing other than hunting.

Fiction: Deer are to blame for all our forest regeneration woes.

Fact: The interrelated effects of herbivory by various mammals, acid rain, European earthworms, pollutants, and other factors all impact forest succession and plants species diversity. It is easy to point the finger at the visible culprit while the more complex, cumulative, yet less visible factors aren’t even called on the carpet.

We caution readers to be wary of false assurances that killing some deer will lesson their risk of Lyme disease or car accidents, or bring back the forest people want to see. For more information on living with deer and other urban wildlife, visit www.wildneighbors.org.

Sincerely,

Laura Simon

Field Director, Urban Wildlife Program

Humane Society of the United States

CT Field Office

30 Hazel Terrace, Woodbridge                              November 14, 2006