Cervid overpopulation has become a major environmental and public safety problem here in Pittsburgh. The city has the most tree cover (over 50%) of any major US metro region due to our deeply corrugated geography of river valleys and ridges with many steep slopes that are unbuildable. Also a lot of large wooded parks that are interconnected with greenways through the valleys and ridgetops that allow the herds to prosper and spread. They have had to license bow hunters to cull the deer in our 600 plus acre Frick Park and I believe nearly 100 have been removed in that gruesome manner in each of the past 2 years. Local processors donate the venison to food pantry organizations.
The near suburban borough where I live straddles one of the greenway routes between Frick Park and a large adjacent golf course that was abandoned and let to revert to Nature some years ago as a community hiking and bird watching site. We are also transected by two major highways, the historic Route 30 Lincoln Highway (which runs from New Jersey to California) and the I-376 local branch of Interstate 76 (the PA Turnpike).
This has resulted in numerous car-deer encounters that did not end well for all involved. The local police have had to be called to put down injured animals and some spectacular crashes have included multi car rollovers and drivers and passengers sent to the hospital. I heard one such accident happen last Fall while I was hanging out with former neighbors on their porch on the ridge just above the Lincoln Highway where I used to live. I see near misses weekly from my living room window at the new house as motorists driving (usually too fast) around a semi-blind turn on my street encounter one or more deer plunging into the road from the high school athletic field and adjacent woods at that point.
Two weeks ago there was a two car collision there caused by one driver swerving to avoid having Bambi through his windshield. No injuries but both cars were in bad shape and one had to be towed on a flat bed. Deer not only had no injuries but stood around in a group as they browsed in my side yard and watched the clean up. They have zero fear of humans and will just stare at me defiantly when I walk right up to them in the yard. The last one I confronted didn’t even blink – staring me down as it deposited a steaming pile of scat into the middle of the lawn.