Projects

Customized Deer Management
for Residential Communities

Growing human populations have led to increased urban development. Many communities retain sufficient natural resources to allow deer populations to flourish. As a result, residents frequently interact with deer. While some deer-human interactions are positive, many interactions are negative which can lead residents to ask wildlife managers for assistance. Wildlife management agencies approach community deer management differently throughout the U.S., and new methods are needed to better address residents’ concerns about deer. Our research aimed to identify deer management techniques (e.g., hunting, repellents) that suburban and semi-rural residents were willing to adopt. Additionally, we developed a framework based on structured decision making that may be easily applied by wildlife managers to help communities develop deer management plans.

  1. Review community deer management resources across the United States.

  2. Understand the acceptability of deer management techniques in suburban and semi-rural communities.

  3. Develop a decision framework for managing deer in urban areas for use by wildlife managers assisting residential communities.
  • Dr. Gino D’Angelo
  • Dr. Bynum Boley
  • Dr. Amanda Van Buskirk
  • Shane Boehne (Master’s Student)
  • Kaitlin Goode (Georgia Department of Natural Resources)
  • Charlie Killmaster (Georgia Department of Natural Resources)
  • Dr. Tina Johannsen (Georgia Department of Natural Resources)
  • Georgia Department of Natural Resources

Project Objectives

  1. Review community deer management resources across the United States.

  2. Understand the acceptability of deer management techniques in suburban and semi-rural communities.

  3. Develop a decision framework for managing deer in urban areas for use by wildlife managers assisting residential communities.

Researchers

  • Dr. Gino D’Angelo
  • Dr. Bynum Boley
  • Dr. Amanda Van Buskirk
  • Shane Boehne (Master’s Student)
  • Kaitlin Goode (Georgia Department of Natural Resources)
  • Charlie Killmaster (Georgia Department of Natural Resources)
  • Dr. Tina Johannsen (Georgia Department of Natural Resources)

Funding

  • Georgia Department of Natural Resources