Population Reconstruction of White Tailed Deer under Intensive Culling

Background

White tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) is one of the most important game species in north America. It’s recovery across their historical range was one of the greatest stories of wildlife management. The success largely depended on successful management of hunting quotas with the help of creation of state wildlife agencies and enactment of game laws.

However overabundance causes problems. In Chicago, increasing deer density promote concern of deer-vehicle collision. In 1992, 2 human were killed and 145 injured due to deer-vehicle collision in Chicago area. And across the US, more than 1.5 million traffic crashes involving deer annually, producing about 150 fatalities and at least 1.1 billion dollars in damage.

Sharp shooting seems being a successful control measure. This study tired to answer whether it is one and how we should select target.

Select Result

Please go and check the interactive visualizations for the simulation of the population under various culling schemes here.