Urban Wildlife Abecedarium: D Deer
Sep. 7th, 2004 06:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urbpanBehind the cut is another chapter in a series of articles called "Invasion of the Megafauna," which will be the featured piece in the next Urban Pantheist. It also serves as my entry for "D," in my alphabetical series of assignments. Please assign me a topic for "E," for next week.
Deer
Deer are graceful plant-eating mammals, ranging in size from the tiny (18" tall, 25lb) muntjac of Asia to the horse-sized (up to 1500 lbs or more) moose of North America and northern Eurasia. They occur on all continents except Antarctica, and have been introduced to hundreds of islands around the world. They are shy animals that depend on their acute senses to alert them of danger. They are popular game with human hunters. All deer are prey animals in those places that they are native, usually supporting the largest mammalian predator species. One imagines that their large size, shyness, and reliance on a variety of plant food sources make them poor candidates for urban wildlife.
However, that is exactly what they are becoming, in cities all over the globe. Their appearance in densely populated human settlements is still unusual enough to be newsworthy when it happens. But it is happening more and more frequently. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are commonly encountered in the densely suburban east and south of the U.S., while their close relative the black-tailed or mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) often wander into the suburbs of western North America. Where the range of moose (Alces alces) and human overlap, the two larger species sometimes comes into territory claimed by the smaller.
Great Britain has no fewer than six species of deer, two of which are more or less native. Hunting grounds there have been stocked and restocked with deer from various places for centuries. Introduction of alien deer species to the British Isles may have began as early as the Roman era, and was certainly occurring by the time of the Norman Conquest. The last deer species to be introduced came from Asia, including a form of muntjac: the Reeves' muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi), a 30-40 lb deer from China. Given the small size and long period of development of Britain, it's hardly surprising that some of their deer have come to live in urban areas.
They don't hear the sound of tiny cloven hooves tapping on the paving stones in Trafalgar Square, but anywhere where there is enough shrubbery to hide a fox is ample cover for muntjac. Some London neighborhoods have generous "back gardens," pieces of land behind a residence, where North Americans get their idea of a "yard." These parcels are homes to decreasing amounts of native songbirds, but increasing amounts of introduced American Gray Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis), cats and foxes. It seems that muntjac deer will join this accidental community of urban animals.
In North America, our deer and moose are emblematic of the wild. Without wolves or mountain lions (greatly reduced or eliminated from settled parts of the continent) to put pressure on them, our deer species have exploded in numbers. Their "intrusion" into cities is inevitable, when the intrusion of cities into former farms and woods is so out of control. Each year in New England, there are one or two news stories of a "confused" moose sighted close enough to human settlements to cause alarm. This past spring a young moose found its way into the endless suburbs between Boston and Worcester. Its appearance was greeted with media hysteria resembling the coverage of a jailbreak. Thankfully for the animal, it disappeared silently into the scant corridors of wood before a human solution to its "problem" had to be found.
Bartalucci, A. and B. Weinstein, T. Dewey. 2000. "Alces alces" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed August 30, 2004 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Alces_alces.html.
The British Deer Society. "Muntjac." http://www.bds.org.uk/PageL3.asp?PageName=Education&PageNameL2=Species&PageNameL3=Muntjac (Also "Chinese Water Deer," "Fallow Deer," "Red Deer," "Roe Deer," "Sika Deer.)"
Hagg, Guy. "Urban Gorillas, now Urban Deer. (Parts 1 and 2)"
http://www.deer-uk.com/urban_deer.htm
McCarthy, Michael. "Bambi in the Back Garden: Deer are the New Urban Invaders" August 16, 2004.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=551881
Wildlife Conservation Society. "World's Smallest Deer Species Discovered By Wildlife Conservation Society."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/07/990706070307.htm
cross-posted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
zine_scene
Deer
Deer are graceful plant-eating mammals, ranging in size from the tiny (18" tall, 25lb) muntjac of Asia to the horse-sized (up to 1500 lbs or more) moose of North America and northern Eurasia. They occur on all continents except Antarctica, and have been introduced to hundreds of islands around the world. They are shy animals that depend on their acute senses to alert them of danger. They are popular game with human hunters. All deer are prey animals in those places that they are native, usually supporting the largest mammalian predator species. One imagines that their large size, shyness, and reliance on a variety of plant food sources make them poor candidates for urban wildlife.
However, that is exactly what they are becoming, in cities all over the globe. Their appearance in densely populated human settlements is still unusual enough to be newsworthy when it happens. But it is happening more and more frequently. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are commonly encountered in the densely suburban east and south of the U.S., while their close relative the black-tailed or mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) often wander into the suburbs of western North America. Where the range of moose (Alces alces) and human overlap, the two larger species sometimes comes into territory claimed by the smaller.
Great Britain has no fewer than six species of deer, two of which are more or less native. Hunting grounds there have been stocked and restocked with deer from various places for centuries. Introduction of alien deer species to the British Isles may have began as early as the Roman era, and was certainly occurring by the time of the Norman Conquest. The last deer species to be introduced came from Asia, including a form of muntjac: the Reeves' muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi), a 30-40 lb deer from China. Given the small size and long period of development of Britain, it's hardly surprising that some of their deer have come to live in urban areas.
They don't hear the sound of tiny cloven hooves tapping on the paving stones in Trafalgar Square, but anywhere where there is enough shrubbery to hide a fox is ample cover for muntjac. Some London neighborhoods have generous "back gardens," pieces of land behind a residence, where North Americans get their idea of a "yard." These parcels are homes to decreasing amounts of native songbirds, but increasing amounts of introduced American Gray Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis), cats and foxes. It seems that muntjac deer will join this accidental community of urban animals.
In North America, our deer and moose are emblematic of the wild. Without wolves or mountain lions (greatly reduced or eliminated from settled parts of the continent) to put pressure on them, our deer species have exploded in numbers. Their "intrusion" into cities is inevitable, when the intrusion of cities into former farms and woods is so out of control. Each year in New England, there are one or two news stories of a "confused" moose sighted close enough to human settlements to cause alarm. This past spring a young moose found its way into the endless suburbs between Boston and Worcester. Its appearance was greeted with media hysteria resembling the coverage of a jailbreak. Thankfully for the animal, it disappeared silently into the scant corridors of wood before a human solution to its "problem" had to be found.
Bartalucci, A. and B. Weinstein, T. Dewey. 2000. "Alces alces" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed August 30, 2004 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Alces_alces.html.
The British Deer Society. "Muntjac." http://www.bds.org.uk/PageL3.asp?PageName=Education&PageNameL2=Species&PageNameL3=Muntjac (Also "Chinese Water Deer," "Fallow Deer," "Red Deer," "Roe Deer," "Sika Deer.)"
Hagg, Guy. "Urban Gorillas, now Urban Deer. (Parts 1 and 2)"
http://www.deer-uk.com/urban_deer.htm
McCarthy, Michael. "Bambi in the Back Garden: Deer are the New Urban Invaders" August 16, 2004.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=551881
Wildlife Conservation Society. "World's Smallest Deer Species Discovered By Wildlife Conservation Society."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/07/990706070307.htm
cross-posted to
zine_scene
D
Date: 2004-09-08 12:21 pm (UTC)A deer story or two from Canada...
Deer story #1 - Last weekend David and I were up in Nova Scotia looking at some land to buy (it's really cheap up there!), and we stayed at a bed & breakfast at the southwestern tip of Cape Breton. The proprietor of the B&B found out that I was a vegetarian and immediately asked me about my feelings about "controlling animals". I guessed that he was a hunter (most likely of deer), and wanted to reassure himself that he wasn't committing some immoral act. (Those Canadians really really care about what other people think of them! They're so damned polite, even when they disagree with you!) He used the usual arguments for "keeping animal populations in check" so that they don't "starve to death" - a horror apparently worse than being stalked and then shot to death. Anyway, I said that nature did a perfectly good job of making sure that there weren't too many critters than the environment could sustain, and that rather than starving to death, nature controlled the population by decreasing the fertility rate when food was scarce. But after I said that, I realized that I was just pulling that explanation out of my ass. Is this true? It seems logical, but I don't really know. Obviously a lack of natural predators can cause problems, but can the fertility rate do the job on it's own?
Deer story #2 - Near the more centrally located town of Wolfville, Nova Scotia, we found some well forested land (with fairly young trees) that we decided to buy and we were scouting the area for survey markers and just generally looking around when David apparently annoyed a deer. David decided to change directions because the deer that was about 10 feet away from him was stomping it's feet in an attempt to intimidate David. As shy as they may be, they really can be intimidating when they want to be! So, it looks like we're definitely going to have to share our home (and garden!) with some big neighbors! I'm wondering if Wolfville is appropriately named, or if it's just named after some guy who used to live there...
As for E? Ethnobotany? Not sure how to tie that into urban living, but early civilizations with cities must have has some interesting relationships with plants.
And, of course, I wholeheartedly support the topic entomology!
-Turtle
Re: D
Date: 2004-09-10 09:25 am (UTC)I think that, for the most part, fertility rate isn't related to food availability (notice starving humans still manage to have babies, perhaps even at higher frequencies than in times of plenty - in times of stress, animals tend to have more babies than less in the hopes that some percentage of the babies will survive), but to population levels (overcrowded rodents will have no litters, smaller litters, or resort to cannibalism if they are overcrowded). I know that starlings will lay fewer eggs in bigger flocks regardless of food sources/availability. Since deer are somewhat solitary, there would have to be a heck of a lot of deer for overcrowding to affect birth/fertility rate.
Re: D
Date: 2004-09-10 09:27 am (UTC)The Town of Wolfville welcomes you to the picturesque Annapolis Valley. Originally know as Mud Creek, it got its name in 1830 when two granddaughters of Judge Elisha DeWolfe convinced their postmaster uncle that a more suitable name was needed. The villagers chose the name Wolfville for their town. Today beautiful elm trees, manicured lawns and grand century old homes guide visitors down Wolfville's Main Street. Visit our tourist bureau located in Willow Park on Main Street for a complete guide of what to see and do in the area.
Re: D
Date: 2004-09-10 01:54 pm (UTC)I agree that this entry was on the flat side--my only defence is that it's part of a larger piece, and may work better in context. But maybe I need to get into it a little more, too.
I'm still conflicted on the "deer overpopulation" issue. I suspect that hunting supporters are using some junk science. I wish they would just come out and say "I like to kill deer." The implication that they are involved in some noble cause is offensive to me. I don't care if people kill deer, but don't try to tell me you are helping nature. Nature is cruel and efficient. If the deer starve, then there will be fewer deer (Gypsy moth caterpillars do this on a scale that we can observe.) If these people actually cared about the welfare of the deer, they would support predator re-introductions. How would they like some mountain lions up in Nova Scotia?
I don't think that their fertility is affected by their population, but it may be affected by their access to food and other resources. A starving doe will reproduce more efficiently than a well-fed one.
I have been stomped at by the buck that I take care of at work. I assume it's a bluff, but if he had antlers it might not be.
Sometimes people will tell me (complain) that deer are in their yards, eating their gardens and ornamental shrubs. I tell them (in so many words) if you don't want deer in your yard, you better stop feeding them (put up an 8 foot fence, or stop growing food for them).
Hey, by the way, CONGRATULATIONS!!!