The Future of Hunting as a Mechanism to Control White-Tailed Deer Populations

Increases in the distribution and abundance of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) throughout much of their range, coupled with hunter accessibility limitations, have prompted many state wildlife agencies to consider the future effectiveness of hunting as a population control mechanism under current regulatory systems. Wildlife managers in many areas experiencing abundant deer are questioning the conditions under which public hunting serves to control deer populations. In this article, we evaluate the performance of hunting as a deer population control mechanism and propose criteria to assess the effectiveness of public hunting for that purpose across the landscape, including rural and developed areas. We conclude that to control deer populations across broad landscapes, many wildlife agencies will have to adopt hunting regulations that are robust to 3 conditions: decrease in hunter numbers, increase in refugia that limit hunter access to deer, and increase in importance of urban and suburban areas as elements of deer range. To stabilize or reduce the high-density deer populations currently existing across much of white-tailed deer range, regulations need to give hunters incentives to shoot antlerless deer voluntarily or simply require them to do so. It is likely that comprehensive population control programs of the future will combine general recreational hunting regimes that promote great per-hunter harvests of antlerless deer across broad scales with complementary, site-specific, highly regulated hunts and programs to diminish the effects of refugia created by hunting-access limitations. Recreational hunting is unlikely to be sufficient as the sole management tool for most urban and suburban areas; other control methods will be part of integrated strategies for developed sites. We use New York data to illustrate ideas presented in this paper to assess utility of an existing hunting program to control deer populations across broad landscapes.