About 50 years ago, few deer still lived in the US. For many years, people killed deer for food. Much of the land where deer live was used for farming. The government told hunters not to kill so many deer. The government also brought deer from other countries to the US.
Today, the government work to save deer is successful–too successful. Too many deer now live in the US and they cause problems. Deer eat food plants on farms. Deer kill many trees by eating all of the tree leaves and branches. Deer run on to the road and cars hit them. Deer cost the tree business $750 million each year because they kill so many trees. Deer caused $1.1 billion in damage to cars in one year. Almost 14,000 people were hurt when their cars hit the deer on the road.
Before Europeans came to America, between 10 and 15 deer lived in each square mile of land. In many places in the US today, over 30 deer live on one square mile of land. In the past, wolves, coyotes and bobcats killed many deer. Today there are not as many of these animals left to kill deer. Man is the deer}’s main killer, but not many people hunt deer any more.
Some local governments try to lower the deer population. They have had little success. Disease now kills many deer in the US and Canada. The disease spreads quickly because there are too many deer. No one seems to have a good solution to this problem.
Tags: animals
