Ecological science has some strongly disagreeing points, but that’s coming from a human, so paw in my mouth.
Edit Oh, god. I realised this’ll trigger all the " my pet only stays indoors or wears a bell" people. Good. Good! But it’s not really about you and that, is it? Save yourself the time and keep scrolling.
I have a friend who works in forest ecology, he seems to hate all deer on a personal level. Pretty sure if he had the power we would all someday read about a scientist who enacted a genocide on the deer population of North America.
Oh he’s definitely explained himself, it’s his favorite topic to rant about when he’s drinking too much.
Basically Native Americans spent thousands of years reshaping the forest in North America to basically become giant deer making factories. The native population didn’t cultivate fame animals the same as the Europeans, but they did change the ecology of forest to sustain a very large population on wild game.
After the great dying in the Americas substantially reduced the number of people maintaining the ecology and moderating the deer population exploded. Which is part of the reason colonizers described America as some untouched and ever bountiful land full of wild game. Their expansion west and their hunting of what little natural predators were left just made a bad situation worse.
Now deer are super overpopulated and eating the forest floor clean of underbrush and new saplings, causing a cascading failure in the forests ability to sustain itself and other animals.
Nah, did a more in-depth explanation further down. Basically more about overpopulation and their ability to strip ground coverage and young saplings from the forest floor.
Basically him, I’ve been in the car with him when he’s pulled over just to yell insults at some deer standing near the side of the road. Pretty sure any deer that actually made it onto his property would just be killed.
Ecological science has some strongly disagreeing points, but that’s coming from a human, so paw in my mouth.
Edit Oh, god. I realised this’ll trigger all the " my pet only stays indoors or wears a bell" people. Good. Good! But it’s not really about you and that, is it? Save yourself the time and keep scrolling.
I have a friend who works in forest ecology, he seems to hate all deer on a personal level. Pretty sure if he had the power we would all someday read about a scientist who enacted a genocide on the deer population of North America.
I suspect it’s because uncontrolled deer can wreak havoc on an ecosystem and we’ve driven out/killed most of their natural predators.
Fixed typo
Any problem can be solved with enough wolves!
Oh he’s definitely explained himself, it’s his favorite topic to rant about when he’s drinking too much.
Basically Native Americans spent thousands of years reshaping the forest in North America to basically become giant deer making factories. The native population didn’t cultivate fame animals the same as the Europeans, but they did change the ecology of forest to sustain a very large population on wild game.
After the great dying in the Americas substantially reduced the number of people maintaining the ecology and moderating the deer population exploded. Which is part of the reason colonizers described America as some untouched and ever bountiful land full of wild game. Their expansion west and their hunting of what little natural predators were left just made a bad situation worse.
Now deer are super overpopulated and eating the forest floor clean of underbrush and new saplings, causing a cascading failure in the forests ability to sustain itself and other animals.
wreak ?
Is this the bit about where we place all that foreign food (young conifers) in their area and then get upset when they eat it?
Nah, did a more in-depth explanation further down. Basically more about overpopulation and their ability to strip ground coverage and young saplings from the forest floor.
“ GET OUT OF MY FUCKING YARD YOU GARDEN TRAMPLING VEGETABLE STEALING TICK INFESTED DISEASE VECTORS”
Basically him, I’ve been in the car with him when he’s pulled over just to yell insults at some deer standing near the side of the road. Pretty sure any deer that actually made it onto his property would just be killed.
I’d argue they’re still innocent, if not actually victims - it’s ultimately humans fault at the end of the day