Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2013/10/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Chris' comments are right on target. White Tail Deer are incredibly overpopulated in Indiana, and in the last few years, they have begun to be seen in the large cities like Fort Wayne. I nearly hit one with my car that jumped out into the road in a residential neighborhood in the city last week! This was in a city of 250,000 people, not a rural area! - - - - Those beautiful white tailed deer are 150 lb. rats. They consume just about everything that grows and have dramatically changed the landscape.They carry and spread Lyme disease, a crippling ailment which has reached endemic proportions in the Northeast. Their number has multiplied dramatically. We have five sleeping in our back yard. Every time we leave the house we have to chase a few away from our garden. If you look at my LUG gallery site you will see almost as many pictures of deer as you will of flowers. In the Hudson Valley there are now more deer than when the land belonged to the Indians. They live on the edge of the woods, feeding in open areas. The main reason for the growth in numbers is that venison is no longer regarded as a necessary food source. Deer are no longer hunted as in the past and restrictive laws keep the hunting season very short. Wolves and bears, their natural predators have been largely eliminated. That and the Disney movie "Bambi" which led a entire generation to think of deer as benign, almost decorative, animals. The greatest predator of deer is now the automobile. Rural highways are punctuated with deer carcasses and smashed cars. Eat more venison. - Eat. Larry Z