Study of Deer Migration On Bald Head Island with an Eye on Birth Control
February 26, 2008
Bald Head Island NC has had an over population of deer for a number of years but opposition to allowing hunting to control the herd lead them to hiring “professionals” to cull them. The islands deer population has been brought down to a reasonable number but maintaining that level is leading them to looking into the use of birth control. A telemetry study of deer is under way to see if they move back and forth to the mainland which is not really all that far. Whitetail deer can and do swim so I suspect that $60,000 latter they are going to discover that the deer do cross the water to get to the island.
Village Manager Calvin Peck said that while Bald Head agreed to pass on a hunt this year, in part because the ongoing drought has stressed the deer, there were no guarantees the hunting moratorium would continue into 2009.
“We’ll see where we are then and see what the recommendation is from the (Bald Head Island) Conservancy and others and then go from there,” he said.
Anthony Snider, a UNCW environmental studies professor, said tracking the deer for at least one year is the first step in determining if a contraceptive would be an effective tool in controlling the Brunswick County island’s deer population.
Technically, Bald Head is no longer an island since Corncake Inlet shoaled up in the late 1990s. That could mean deer are migrating between Bald Head and southern New Hanover County. That movement could make the program less effective.
“We have to see if the deer are staying on the island or you’re just wasting your money,” Snider said.
He said the deer that have been tagged so far don’t show much inclination to leave Bald Head, although he cautioned the monitoring phase is still in the early stages.
I’m not a scientist but it seems to me that you have to track deer on the mainland as well to see if they are migrating out to the island. I think it is more likely that lack of food could push deer towards Bald Head and once they find the succulent landscape on the island that they decide to set up residency.
What a waste of tax payer money to not utilize the safe and humane method to control the population by using hunting. North Carolina Wildlife Commission has established the Urban Archery Program to address such concerns as this. The uses of contraceptives are unnatural and will not help keep the fear of man in this herd like hunting will.
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Good post. Why not use hunting, especially when, as you mentioned in the post above, there are so many people who need the meat?