Deer vs vehicle collisions

An estimated 1.5 million deer-vehicle collisions occur each year in the U.S. The average cost of vehicle repairs was $3,500 which means that total vehicle damage resulting from a collision with a deer exceeded $5 billion annually. It is estimated that 29,000 people are injured and more than 190 fatalities occur annually in the U.S. as a result of a Deer Vehicle Collisions.

Landscape/garden damage

Deer browsing on ornamental trees, shrubbery, and gardens in suburban and residential areas is a common complaint and financially impacts homeowners each year. Wildlife damages incurred by metropolitan residents in the U.S. have been estimated at $4.5 billion annually. This is in addition to spending billions of dollars and thousands of hours trying to solve or prevent the problem. Deer are not responsible for all of this damage, however are increasingly shown to have a greater impact than had previously estimated.

Crop Damage

The economic losses from deer damage to farmer crops continues to be significant. While as a farmer you recognize deer damage when you see it, you may not realize the full extent of depredation impacting your yields.

• Mid-Atlantic surveys have found growers reported 70% of their crop losses from wildlife were due to deer.

• Most farmers do not know the extent to their deer damage until completing a yielded fence test.

• With most Mid-Atlantic regions supporting upwards of 50-100 deer per square mile, and each deer consuming, on average, 7 pounds per day, a 300 acre farm could see well over 200 pounds of crop damage per day unbeknownst to the land owner.

Environmental Impacts

Whitetail deer in large numbers can cause significant habitat damage even on relatively large tracks of land like some of our parks. Deer are of the ruminant family and eat 7-10 pounds of a food per day . Whitetail deer will often browse in an area to which it can have a negative environmental impact. Over browsing creates an unbalanced situation and areas that average 40 deer per square mile, begin to lose ground nesting songbird habitat as well as native species establishment.