Cute and Dangerous: Suburban Deer Hazards are Real

by Karen Sullivan

In spring, female deer give birth and anxiously protect their fawns. That gives rise to stories like this: A friend walking her small dog near the post office last week was closely followed for two blocks by a doe that did not respond to the air horn my friend carried for this purpose. The doe continued to aggressively follow her until my friend ended up in the middle of the road seeking help from traffic, where finally a woman driving a van stopped and offered her a ride home.

A few years ago, another friend who was walking her dog wasn’t so lucky; a deer knocked her down and attacked her Chihuahua mix with its hooves, fatally injuring it. In autumn, bucks can pose a goring threat. I got chased into a church parking lot by a six-point buck who then ran back to the middle of Cherry Street and clashed with an eight-pointer, nearly causing an accident. A lot of residents have encountered similar scenarios, because Port Townsend has an absurdly large deer population that’s not afraid of humans.

Back in April 2016, volunteers counted 230 deer in a half-hour survey that did not cover the entire city. Since then, deer numbers have grown. The mayor himself recently counted 49 deer in a 1.5-mile loop walk near his PT home, and posted his own video of being menaced by an aggressive deer. ^1.

Prey animals often seek protection from predators in human-built environments. In Anchorage, Alaska, where I used to live, a survey _^2.by state biologists conducted after three residents were attacked by brown (grizzly) bears showed that there was even more wildlife than anyone had guessed: 250-300 black bears, 60-plus brown bears, 4 wolf packs, and 1700 moose lived in or around the city. While Port Townsend doesn’t have so many predators, it’s worth remembering that abundant prey can attract them. ^3.

Human health issues arise with deer overpopulation. Deer and other ungulates are vectors of tick-borne illnesses, and the abundance and distribution of ticks are correlated with deer densities.^4. While Lyme and other tick-borne diseases are relatively rare in Washington State, warming temperatures from climate change are expanding their range. Deer ticks, for example, are most active when temperatures are above 45˚F, and they thrive in areas with at least 85-percent humidity. ⁵ While Washington State west of the Cascades reports having very few Lyme cases,⁶ the combination of climate change and a large deer population is cause for concern among health authorities, about future increases in tick-borne diseases. 

In an extreme example of disease surge, the State of Maine, with its abnormally large moose population, leads the nation in Lyme disease, with 109.9 reported cases per 100,000 persons in 2021—a 35 percent increase from the previous year.^7.That’s more than ten times the national average, and is considered to be a fraction of the actual number of unreported cases. A news article showed an adult moose dead from anemia caused by a massive infestation of ticks. And it’s not unusual; in 2022, 90 percent of Maine’s moose calves were killed over the winter by ticks.^8. Biologists counted 47,000 ticks on one calf, and have counted up to 100,000 ticks per adult moose. Each tick ⁹can lay up to 2,000 eggs. 

Currently, for Port Townsend, it’s not so much about ticks as it is safety. Bucks and does are capable of aggression and serious injury. On Vancouver Island’s Saanich Peninsula, ¹⁰ reports have documented deer “following in hot pursuit” of people walking dogs, and entering yards repeatedly to attack dogs. A news story with a video of a doe attacking a dog in a Saanich neighborhood ought to inform anyone how dangerous these normally quiet, passive, avoidant animals can become.¹¹

Most people love seeing wildlife, and those who feed deer often have good intentions. But it’s for a lot of good reasons that wildlife professionals discourage feeding, other than small birds at feeders. It’s often prohibited by agencies, and in 2019, Port Townsend changed its Nuisance Code to prohibit it. ¹²

People who feed deer may not realize that they are contributing not only to public health and safety risks, including attacks by habituated deer, but also to an artificially and unsustainably high number of them. A resident who for years lived next door to what could only be described as a feeding station observed most does having twins or triplets. Triplets are generally produced only in the most excellent conditions. 

Feeding deer, especially young ones, can cause them to lose foraging skills, depend on humans for food, and become habituated.¹³ It can create nutrition imbalances. It can also spread disease and incite excessive competition or aggression between animals. During a bad winter, a high deer population could be subjected to a die-off.

Studies show five to ten people are killed annually in the U.S. by aggressive deer, with many more injured. Regardless of sympathetic “deer were here first” arguments, a densely populated residential area like ours with a deer population this large is an invitation to more serious trouble.

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 ^1.Mayor David Faber’s YouTube video of an aggressive deer is embedded in this story: “Port Townsend residents say deer have grown to “absurd” numbers,” KNKX Radio, December 23, 2022. https://www.knkx.org/government/2022-12-23/port-townsend-residents-say-deer-have-grown-to-absurd-numbers 

 ^2.Anchorage Residents’ Opinions on Wildlife Population Levels; Summary by Faunalytics. March 16, 2010 https://faunalytics.org/anchorage-residents-opinions-on-bear-and-moose-population-levels-and-management-strategies

 ^3.Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Predatory Wildlife Incident Reports. https://wdfw.wa.gov/species-habitats/living/dangerous-wildlife/reports

^4. Kilpatrick, Howard et al. “The relationship between deer density, tick abundance, and human cases of Lyme disease in a residential community,” Journal of Medical Entolomogy, July 2014. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25118409/  Quote: “Reducing deer density to 5.1 deer per square kilometer resulted in a 76% reduction in tick abundance, 70% reduction in the entomological risk index, and 80% reduction in resident-reported cases of Lyme disease in the community from before to after a hunt was initiated.”

^5.USEPA. “Climate Change Indicators: Lyme Disease; This indicator tracks the rate of reported Lyme disease cases across the United States,” April 2021. https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-lyme-disease 

^6.Washington State Department of Health. “Lyme Disease,” https://doh.wa.gov/public-health-provider-resources/notifiable-conditions/lyme-disease# 

7. Maine Department of Health and Human Services “Lyme and Other Tickborne Illnesses Annual Report to the Maine Legislature,” July 2022. https://legislature.maine.gov/doc/8753 

^8.Maine Public Radio. “Winter ticks wiped out nearly 90% of the moose calves scientists tracked in part of Maine last year,” May 18, 2022. https://www.mainepublic.org/environment-and-outdoors/2022-05-18/most-moose-calves-in-part-of-maine-died-this-year-as-a-tiny-predator-benefits-from-warmer-weather

^9. Pierre-Louis, Kendra. “47,000 Ticks on a Moose, and That’s Just Average. Blame Climate Change.” New York Times, October 8, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/18/climate/moose-ticks.html

10.Cumming, Lisa. “Extremely Angry Deer Are Terrorizing the People of Vancouver Island,” Vice News, June 6, 2017. https://www.vice.com/en/article/zmenny/deer-saanich-police-vancouver-island

^11. This video of a deer attack in Saanich can be upsetting to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1AObEj_7IA  

^12. McLean, Brian. “Port Townsend grapples with discouraging feeding of wildlife,”  Peninsula Daily News, September 19. 2019. https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/news/port-townsend-grapples-with-discouraging-feeding-of-wildlife/  

^13. Peaslee, Jennifer. “Killing Them with Kindness,” Cornell Wildlife Health Lab, July 19, 2019. https://cwhl.vet.cornell.edu/article/killing-them-kindness# 

Deer photo by Al Bergstein