The future of hunting as a mechanism to control white-tailed deer populations

Increases in the distribution and abundance of white-tailed deer (Odocoileu s virginianus) throughout much of their range, coupled with hunter accessib ility limitations, have prompted many state wildlife agencies to consider t he future effectiveness of hunting as a population control mechanism under current regulatory systems. Wildlife managers in many areas experiencing ab undant deer are questioning the conditions under which public hunting sen e s to control deer populations. In this article, we evaluate the performance of hunting as a deer population control mechanism and propose criteria to assess the effectiveness of public hunting for that purpose across the land scape, including rural and developed areas. We conclude that to control dee r populations across broad landscapes, many wildlife agencies will have to adopt hunting regulations that are robust to 3 conditions: decrease in hunt er numbers, increase in refugia that limit hunter access to deer, and incre ase in importance of urban and suburban areas as elements of deer range. To stabilize or reduce the high-density deer populations currently existing a cross much of white-tailed deer range, regulations need to give hunters inc entives to shoot antlerless deer voluntarily or simply require them to do s o. It is likely that comprehensive population control programs of the futur e will combine general recreational hunting regimes that promote great per- hunter harvests of antlerless deer across broad scales with completelementa ry documentary, site-specific, highly regulated hunts and programs to dimen sions refugia created by hunting-access limitations. Recreational hunting s ufficient as the sole management tool for most urban and suburban control m ethods will be part of integrated strategies for developed sites York data to illustrate ideas presented in this paper to assess utility of hunting pr ogram to control deer populations across broad landscapes.