Does deer hunting reduce car accidents?

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The truth is th­at conventional deer hunting, also known as trophy hunting, doesn't lower the total deer population. This is because the goal of the trophy hunter is to kill mature male deer, or bucks (with large antlers), not female deer, or does. A single buck can breed with many does, as many as 20 in pen conditions [source: Bradley]. This means that even if you kill two or three bucks from the same breeding territory, the remaining bucks will pick up the slack.

Also, in many states it's illegal to shoot younger males -- also capable of breeding -- so the harvesting of mature bucks doesn't make a significant dent in the total deer population.

In fact, it can be argued that the selective harvesting of bucks can actually lead to increases in the overall number of deer [source: Alcorn]. Here's the logic: When breeding deer in a farm setting, the male/female ratio at birth is 1:1. That means that in a wild setting, where bucks and does experience the same natural pressures -- food scarcity, disease, non-human predators -- the ratio of male to female should also remain a relatively constant 1:1.

The targeted hunting of bucks throws off that ratio, creating situations where the estimated buck-to-doe ratio in the wild can get as high as 1:8 [source: Alcorn]. This skewed male/female ratio is important when winter arrives and food supplies in much of the country become scarce. Every year, a certain percentage of a deer herd will succumb to the winter die-off. It's nature's way of weeding out the weaker animals and maintaining a sustainable population [source: Richey].

If a herd enters the winter die-off with a male/female ratio of 1:1, then you'd expect it to emerge with the ratio more or less intact. The same is true for a herd with a ratio of 1:8. Let's say there's only enough food in the herd's territory to support 450 deer. In the 1:1 herd, 225 does and 225 bucks would live through the winter. In the 1:8 example, 400 does and only 50 bucks would survive.

When June rolls around, let's say the 1:1 herd produces an average of 1.4 fawns per doe (67 percent of mature does have twins), creating 315 new fawns [source: Bradley]. In the 1:8 herd, 1.4 fawns per doe will create a whopping 560 new fawns. In other words: fewer bucks means more females will produce more babies.

If trophy hunting isn't the most effective way to control deer population and reduce deer-car accidents, then what is? Keep reading to find out.

While conventional hunting is ineffective for controlling deer populations and reducing deer-car accidents, that isn't true for all types of hunting. Harvesting bucks won't lower the number of fawns that are born in the spring, but hunters can effectively keep the population down by targeting does [source: Maryland Department of Natural Resources].

Many state fish and game departments have implemented what are called quality deer management programs to reestablish a healthy male-to-female ratio within wild deer herds [source: Delaware Wild Lands]. As part of these programs, buck hunting is severely restricted in many areas, and special "antlerless" hunts have been created to harvest female deer.

In the suburbs, where deer have become an annoyance as well as deadly threats to drivers, special bowhunts, sharpshooter hunts and other managed hunts have been authorized to take down female deer without putting the neighborhood at risk from stray gunfire. The state of Maryland claims that lethal car-deer accidents have declined by more than half in Montgomery County since the implementation of managed deer hunts [source: Maryland Department of Natural Resources].

Animal rights advocates argue that there are effective alternatives to "lethal deer management" [source: Humane Society USA]. Land management is a good place to start. The very nature of suburbs makes them prime real estate for deer. Deer thrive on an unnaturally abundant diet of plants, flowers and grasses that are not available in the wild.

If people want to keep deer off their lawns and out of their streets, then they can start by landscaping with plants that deer don't like and designing suburban developments with more trees and less lawns [source: In Defense of Animals].

Another non-lethal method, which has been used with some success, is injecting does with a temporary contraceptive called porcine zona pellucida (PZP). In a PZP trial by the National Institute of Standards and Technology from 1997 to 2000, they were able to cut the number of annual births by 72 percent [source: NIST]. In a suburban experiment, the contraceptive was used in New York's Fire Island National Seashore to reduce an intrusive deer population by 60 percent [Source: Kirkpatrick]. Given time, perhaps scientists will be able to refine these methods and develop other ways to keep deer safely away from the roadways.

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