We had a problem with deer and it was man made. Basically people planted a bunch of stuff that the deer liked and they were well feed. Instead of forest there was more open land not a huge amount but more food for the deer. Just the highway that goes out to I-95 in effect becomes a 20 miles stretch of 50 foot on each side of grazing area. It gets sun and grows grass, the deer come out at night and eat it. I almost always drive past deer at night. The problem became all the deer/car collisions. One area called Sea Pines had a 173 deer strikes in one year. Maybe 2,000 acres complete with a forest preserve. The answer was not gun happy people but something had to be done since the deer were just over running them. They ended up setting up a once a year deer cull. Professional hunters in specific places would shoot a certain amount of deer to keep the population in check. First year was something like 134, next year the number came down to 109 and it went down for a few years and now they shoot something like 30 a year which is enough to keep the population in check, everyone is happy. The tree huggers threw a fit at first but now no one cares because it works. That idea of culling deer has made it's way into more local communities. The deer meat all goes to charity etc. so it is eaten.
The other problem with all the deer is they make great alligator food. That's what the big guys eat. Again another man made problem. Many lagoons and waterways have been built to control water which is prefect for alligators. An alligator doesn't live in the middle of a forest or a swamp unless there is some deep water. Again, man made waterways, man made deer population explosion and illegal to hunt alligators unless it has become a problem then a state certified hunter to be called in. As the deer population came down in areas so did the alligator population because the big gators kill small ones over territory.
You can't let the wild life over run you thinking it's good for them. Basically man created the best situation for them so I don't see why man can't control their population?
