If predators (hunters) don’t limit today’s deer populations, then the populations will continue to grow until lack of food does. The 60-deer figure has been retroactively changed to 68 deer per square mile and is still being used as a model to determine how many deer must be killed in Greenwich. Are deer … When there are competing populations, as deer increase, the others will decrease.or vice versa. The deer population will not be healthy and scores of other species will suffer.'' Current information about the decline of deer populations in the United States and particularly the western United States. When this happens the wolf population will begin to decline because of the lack of food. (And the Controversial Benefits of Hunting Them) by www.SixWise.com. Factors include late winter storms which cause die off due to starvation, expanded hunting seasons, and increasing coyote populations in many eastern and southern states. See page 167 for details. Addressing the suburban deer dilemma. At the turn of the century the “something” was limited food (there were few suburbs then) and efficient predators (there was unlimited hunting then). Colorado’s highest population estimate occurred in 1983, when deer numbers reached an estimated 625,000 and today the population is under 400,000. Hunter numbers have been dwindling for decades; now the bottom is about to fall out of license-funded conservation. Historic population trend from … The graph at right shows an historical population estimate for California deer. Here’s what went wrong and what you—yes, you—can do about it This has also led to a decrease in living areas sustainable for deer predators, such as wolves, which are therefore no longer preying on deer as they used to. Materials Needed. It was hoped that natural predation would keep the deer population from becoming too large and also increase the deer quality (or health), as predators often eliminate the weaker members of the herd. In … The most serious of these are collisions between automobiles and deer. In the early 1900s, there were about 500,000 white-tailed deer in the United States. The estimate is part of an effort to build a statistical model to help understand the reasons for the decline of the California population. “But fawn mortality is not causing deer-population reductions anywhere in Pennsylvania.” Consistent fawn survival, coupled with consistent adult deer survival – 90 percent of adult deer survive from one hunting season to the next, has fostered straightforward deer management in Pennsylvania for some time, Rosenberry said.