Habituated Deer, March 16

We’ve heard the call before, “don’t feed the deer.”  Hard to do for some.  They are petite in their manner, fun to watch and plentiful on the Bay Area’s peninsula.  Stuart Love is a Game Biologist for the Oregon Dept. of Fish & Wildlife Office in Charleston.  He’s says there are hundreds of deer in the Bay Area.  He receives call, complaints about them on a regular basis.  His answer is always the same, “don’t feed the deer.”  Love adds that the deer in the neighborhoods of Coos Bay, North Bend, Eastside & Charleston are habituated to people.  “They start considering people not different than themselves.  They don’t see us as much of a threat as a wild deer.”  The offering of feed or not shoeing them away from property encourages the deer.  “They get comfortable around us, and they can push the limits.”  Love says consider the situation from the deer’s standpoint, “an occasional dog may bark at them from behind a fence, they don’t have a natural predator, and a bowl of corn is offered.”  While the deer may be attractive, they can become aggressive and a danger to some.  Walkers recently reported a mature buck with a large rack on a city street in the Empire District.  It moved towards them.  Love says deer can become territorial and aggressive if it feels challenged. He adds the does can also be aggressive during their birthing months.  There is really nothing the ODFW can do with deer in towns.  The solution is a community wide effort to not feed the deer and not let them get comfortable on your property.