The problem is that wolves weren’t really native to all the places deer overpopulated in America. The over population of deer wasn’t a natural development, but a purposely implemented design by native populations of America that took place over thousands of years.
Humans hunting deer is really the only solution because humans reshaped the forest ecology to overproduce deer in the first place. A lot of people like to think that prior to European colonization, America had a pristine and untouched forest. In reality native Americans spent thousands of years reshaping the forest to basically become deer factories.
Which mainly prey upon small mammals like raccoons, possums, and rabbits. They also were never a large enough population to control deer populations even if that was all they were to hunt.
The northeast had timber wolves.
Again… Eastern wolves were rarely seen south of the Great lakes, and there’s evidence that there were less than 70k prior to Europeans coming to the Americas.
On the other hand pre colonial white tail deer populations are estimated to be a little over 30 million.
Just reintroduce wolves.
The problem is that wolves weren’t really native to all the places deer overpopulated in America. The over population of deer wasn’t a natural development, but a purposely implemented design by native populations of America that took place over thousands of years.
Humans hunting deer is really the only solution because humans reshaped the forest ecology to overproduce deer in the first place. A lot of people like to think that prior to European colonization, America had a pristine and untouched forest. In reality native Americans spent thousands of years reshaping the forest to basically become deer factories.
We had red wolves throughout the south. The northeast had timber wolves. Not to mention puma. Deer had predators everywhere they exist.
Which mainly prey upon small mammals like raccoons, possums, and rabbits. They also were never a large enough population to control deer populations even if that was all they were to hunt.
Again… Eastern wolves were rarely seen south of the Great lakes, and there’s evidence that there were less than 70k prior to Europeans coming to the Americas.
On the other hand pre colonial white tail deer populations are estimated to be a little over 30 million.
TIL, thank you. Then controlled/regulated hunting it is!
The problem is, there are fewer and fewer hunters every year. It’s a problem that’s just continually getting worse.