White-tailed deer are heavily overpopulated along the East Coast of the U.S., and they play an important role in spreading and supporting tick populations that transmit diseases like Lyme disease and anaplasmosis. Efforts to control deer populations have long been based on the assumption that deer live mostly in wooded parklands, primarily passing through neighborhoods at night to graze on gardens and landscaped yards.
September 19, 2022
White-tailed deer are heavily overpopulated along the East Coast of the U.S., and they play an important role in spreading and supporting tick populations that transmit diseases like Lyme disease and anaplasmosis. Efforts to control deer populations have long been based on the assumption that deer live mostly in wooded parklands, primarily passing through neighborhoods at night to graze on gardens and landscaped yards.
A new five-year study by University of Maryland and USDA found that deer in suburban environments often bed down and spend the night within 50 meters of residential properties. It is the first study to reveal the detailed, hourly movements of white-tailed deer at different times of day throughout different seasons. The study was published online on September 19, 2022, in the journal Urban Ecosystems.
“We knew deer were in and around neighborhoods, but we didn’t realize just how much they were living in the neighborhoods,” said Jennifer Mullinax, assistant professor in the UMD Department of Environmental Science & Technology and senior author of the study.
